Coleherne, Earls Court

The Coleherne Arms public house was a gay pub in west London. Located at 261 Old Brompton Road, Earls Court, it was a popular landmark Leather bar during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2008, it was rebranded as a gastropub, The Pembroke.

The Coleherne Arms (named after Coleherne Road) began life in 1866, at Old Brompton Road in the heart of the west London Bohemian Quarter. It had a long history of attracting a bohemian clientele before becoming known as a gay pub. A lifelong resident of Earls Court Square, Jennifer Ware, recollects as a child being taken there to Sunday lunch in the 1930s, when drag entertainers performed after lunch had finished. It became a gay pub in the mid-fifties. Originally it was segregated into two bars, one for the straight crowd and one for the gay community at a time when homosexuality was illegal. In the 1970s it became a notorious leather bar, with blacked-out windows, attracting an international crowd including Freddie Mercury, Kenny Everett, Mike Procter, Rudolf Nureyev, Anthony Perkins, Rupert Everett, Ian McKellen and Derek Jarman. Leather men wearing chaps and leather jackets with key chains and colour-coded handkerchiefs formed the clientele. The Coleherne was known internationally as a leather bar by 1965. The gay community flourished in Earls Court and many international tourists joined the locals.

It sought to lighten its image with a makeover in the mid-1990s to attract a wider clientele, but to no avail. In September 2008, it was purchased by Realpubs, underwent a major refurbishment and reopened as a gastropub, The Pembroke. The Coleherne was reputed to be the oldest gay pub in London before reopening as The Pembroke; the title then fell to the King Edward VI in Islington, which closed in 2011; the pub currently reckoned as the oldest gay pub in London is The Queen's Head in Chelsea. The Markham Arms at 138 King's Road, which closed in the early 1990s and is now a bank branch, was a gay pub on Saturdays only.

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