Heaven (nightclub)

Heaven

The entrance to Heaven
Location	Charing Cross, London, England
Owner	Jeremy Joseph
Type	Night club
Capacity	1,625
Opened	1979
Website
[2]

Heaven is a superclub in London, England which appeals predominantly to the gay market. It is located underneath Charing Cross railway station in Central London, just off Trafalgar Square.

Heaven was opened in December 1979 by Jeremy Norman in a former, run-down roller-disco called Global Village, which was housed in the arches beneath Charing Cross railway station, once part of Adelphi Arches, a large wine-cellar for the hotel above. Norman was also chairman of Burke's Peerage, the publishers. The original hi-tech interior was designed by his partner, Derek Frost. Norman had started an earlier club, The Embassy, in Old Bond Street in 1978. Norman, an entrepreneur, took his knowledge and used it to create an entirely new form of gay club on a larger scale. The Embassy had taken London by storm and is generally seen as the London equivalent of New York's Studio 54. Heaven quickly established itself as the centre of the (then understated) gay London nightlife. Until Heaven, most gay clubs were small hidden cellar-bars or pub discos. Heaven brought gay clubbing into the mainstream and finally got a club to rival New Yorks gay super club at the time The Saint.

As one of the first gay clubs in London, and one of the first openly-so in the world, Heaven courted controversy, frequently appearing in the tabloid press, especially in the famous News of the World headlines about alleged ecstasy use in the nightclub in 1989.

Heaven became home to the Megatripolis club in October 1993 until October 1996 hosting visits from Allen Ginsberg, Terence McKenna and Ram Dass and DJs including Derrick May and Mr C.