Dalston Superstore: A Queer Landmark on Kingsland Road

A famous Kingsland Road bar and club whose ironic name belies its role as a cornerstone of East London’s queer nightlife

The Prat’s naming desk salutes a genuine institution at Dalston Superstore, a Kingsland Road bar and club whose deadpan, ironic name belies its real significance: it is one of the cornerstones of East London’s queer nightlife, and one of the most important and beloved LGBTQ venues in the modern city.

The ironic name

The naming desk enjoys the wit of “Superstore.” It is a name of pure deadpan irony – the grand, banal language of the supermarket and the retail park applied to a hip, late-night queer bar and club. There is a knowing playfulness in taking so unglamorous a word and making it the name of somewhere genuinely cool; it wears its ordinariness as a badge of style, and gently sends up the whole business of naming a venue for maximum allure. The name is confident enough to be funny, and cool enough to make the joke land.

A cornerstone of queer nightlife

Behind the playful name lies something of real importance. Since opening, Dalston Superstore has become a landmark of London’s LGBTQ scene – a bar, club, cafe and performance space spread over two floors, hosting drag, cabaret, club nights and community events, and offering a welcoming, creative, inclusive home for queer nightlife in East London. In a city that has, sadly, lost many of its LGBTQ venues in recent years, the survival and success of a place like the Superstore matters enormously: these are not just bars but vital community spaces, places of safety, expression, celebration and belonging. It is a genuine cultural institution.

Dalston after dark

The Superstore is also central to the story of Dalston itself as a nightlife destination. The neighbourhood’s rise as one of London’s great going-out districts owes a real debt to its pioneering, boundary-pushing venues, and the Superstore has been among the most influential of them – a place that helped define the area’s reputation for creative, diverse, late-night energy. It anchors the Kingsland Road scene, and its presence has shaped the character of the whole surrounding nightlife.

Space to be

The naming desk wants to underline why venues like this matter beyond the fun. LGBTQ spaces have always been more than nightlife – they are places of safety, community and self-expression, hard-won and, in recent years, increasingly threatened as venue after venue has closed across the city. In that context, a thriving, long-running queer institution is a genuine achievement and a genuine asset: a place where people can gather freely, be themselves without fear, find their community and celebrate it. Dalston Superstore has offered exactly that for years, and its cultural importance to East London runs far deeper than any star rating could ever capture.

The verdict

The naming desk records a rating of 3.7 for Dalston Superstore honestly, while noting that a raw score tells only a fraction of the story of a venue whose real value lies in its cultural role. A Kingsland Road bar and club whose deadpan “Superstore” name belies its place as a cornerstone of East London’s queer nightlife is the naming desk’s kind of important, witty landmark. The Prat orders a drink, salutes the venue’s role in the life of its community, and toasts a genuine Dalston institution.

Alan Nafzger

Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]