Club Colosseum

In the 1990s and 2000s, Colosseum became best known for hosting Bootylicious, a hugely important club night for Black and brown LGBTQ+ communities. At a time when many mainstream gay venues were overwhelmingly white and often unwelcoming, Bootylicious offered a space where music, fashion, language and social codes reflected the experiences of Black queer Londoners. It was not simply a party, but a vital cultural platform — a place to be seen, to connect, and to build community in a city where such spaces were rare and hard-won. While Club Colosseum itself has gone, Bootylicious has not: the night continues today at Union in Vauxhall, maintaining a living connection between past and present queer nightlife along the same riverside corridor.
Colosseum also hosted large-scale after-hours events such as Beyond, which became known for its marathon dancefloors, long nights and sense of collective release. While the club eventually closed, Beyond did not disappear: it continues today as a monthly night at nearby Fire in Vauxhall, linking present-day queer nightlife directly back to this earlier period and to the same stretch of the river south of the Thames.
For many, venues like Colosseum were part of how queer social life rebuilt itself after the worst years of the AIDS crisis — places of joy, intimacy and survival as much as celebration. The packed dancefloors and fleeting connections carried emotional weight alongside the music, offering moments of escape and belonging in the shadow of loss.
The demolition of Market Towers during the Nine Elms redevelopment removed both the Market Tavern and Club Colosseum from the landscape, erasing a physical hub of south London queer nightlife. What remains are memories, playlists and stories of nights that helped shape identities, friendships and communities — and a reminder that some of the city’s most important queer spaces once thrived in the most unlikely of industrial corners.