London Pub is the largest and best-known gay venue in Oslo, a cornerstone of the city's LGBTQ+ scene for over thirty years. The ground-floor pub opens daily from mid-afternoon for a relaxed mix of quiz nights, karaoke, drag, and comedy, making it an easy place to start an evening or settle in for a low-key drink. Upstairs, London Club is the city's most popular gay nightclub, open Thursday through Saturday, where a lively, mixed crowd dances to pop anthems and Eurovision favorites late into the night. Centrally located just off Karl Johans gate, welcoming and unpretentious, it remains the dependable heart of queer nightlife in the Norwegian capital.
In the early hours of June 25, 2022, London Pub was the focus of one of the darkest moments in Norway's LGBTQ+ history. As Oslo celebrated the night before its annual Pride parade, with more than 500 people in and around the bar and the neighboring venues, a gunman opened fire on the crowd, killing two people and seriously wounding nine before bystanders tackled and subdued him. The planned Pride parade was canceled, and Norway briefly raised its terror alert to the highest level; in the days that followed, thousands gathered anyway to lay flowers and rainbow flags outside the pub, and the stretch of Rosenkrantz' gate where the attack happened was later painted in rainbow colors as a permanent memorial. In 2024, the attacker was convicted of aggravated terrorism and murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison, with the court finding that he had set out to kill as many gay people as possible and to instill fear in the wider community. London Pub reopened and continues to stand today as both a place of celebration and a symbol of a community's resilience.
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