The London pub is open every day – even on Christmas Eve. For many queers, the Oslo pub is an important haven during the holidays – Vårt Land
Romjula are some busy nightlife days in this country, but on Christmas Eve itself the majority traditionally stay at home with the family. A bunch of places remain faithfully open even on Christmas Eve. One of these is the London pub in Oslo. The nightclub on CJ Hambros square opened in 1979, and has been known as one of the country’s most important meeting places for gays since the early nineties.
Until this summer, the place was primarily known in nightlife and LGBT circles, but the shooting on the night of June 25 made the London pub a very popular name in the news media. The shootings by Zaniar Matapour killed two and injured over 20 people in the Pride-themed bar street. In addition to the London pub, the neighboring places Per på Hjørnet and Herr Nilsen were hit. The incident led to the official Pride parade the next day being canceled because PST feared more attacks against the queer movement.
This summer, there was a lot of news pressure in the pub, but apart from the harvest and winter, the atmosphere has normalised, the employees say. For many queers, the London pub is an extra important sanctuary during the holidays, where they can meet friends and what many refer to as their queer family.
Loneliness
When Vårt Land visits a London pub just before Christmas, 30-year-old Daniel Fjell sits at the bar to have a glass of water.
– There are many serious and stern faces out on the streets now in the pre-Christmas period. You can see it in people that they are stressed. Then it’s good to come in here. There are many cool people here, the employees are pleasant and it is a good environment.
Fjell points out that you don’t necessarily have to drink alcohol every time you go to a pub. He says that he has escaped loneliness and depression during and after the pandemic, and then the London pub has been a welcome place to visit.
– Many are lonely in our society, especially at Christmas, and need somewhere to go. To me, everyone is a friend in a London pub.
30 percent of us will be lonely in 2022, reports the Red Cross, a number that almost doubled as a result of the corona pandemic. Mental health for queers has also been weaker than for the general population, figures from Statistics Norway show. Fjell has been openly gay since he was 15, and is concerned with being proud of who he is.
– I laughed a lot when I was younger, but you just have to be yourself. This is what Pride is all about, following your own paths and dreams. But I also want to point out that you are not just gay, you are so much more.
The age range of the clientele is large, says the bartender, a trendy guy in his early 20s, as he pours Munkholm and Coke to a journalist and photographer.
At the weekends and at the karaoke on Tuesdays, there are many young guests, while in the afternoon it tends to be a slightly older audience, he says. It was the social environment that made him apply when he needed a job alongside his studies, he says, who himself is gay and recently moved to Oslo from his home in Western Norway. He wants to be anonymous in the newspaper. The family does not know that he works at the “headquarters for gays since 1979”, as pubs refer to themselves as.
All sorts of people
Fin Serck-Hanssen is a well-known photographer, with pictures exhibited both at the National Museum in Oslo and well-known galleries in London, Helsinki and Copenhagen. Earlier this year he gave out to order Weird icons in collaboration with the authors Bjørn Hatterud and Caroline Ugelstad Elnæs, which marked the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Norway. Every Christmas Eve, as long as he is in town, Serck-Hanssen goes to the London Pub.
– I’m not that happy about Christmas. Heteronormative Christmas celebration with presents, family dinner and stress is a bit hysteria, if you ask me. For me, having a gay Christmas in a pub suits me very well, he says.
[ Anmelder Olav Egil Aune har lyttet seg gjennom 14 av årets nye julealbum ]
On Christmas Eve, the queer regulars like to mix with guests who don’t usually stop by the pub. It can, for example, be Swedes who do not travel home for Christmas and various others who have felt like a city trip, he says.
– This is perhaps what is most eel-like about London. It’s all kinds of people, ages, colors, genders. You can stand alone in a corner if you want, or be with friends. It’s a bit crowded and people are quite relaxed. People are considerate and don’t push each other as in many hetero nightclubs, he says.
There is usually a bowl with a twist on London on Christmas Eve, recalls Serck-Hanssen, but “it’s not over-decorated, so to speak”.
When Vårt Land visits, the pub is decorated with a good mix of shiny baubles, red poinsettias, disco lights and rainbow flags between the brown leather furniture, the jukebox and the tiny karaoke stage.
Fried
Ingvildestad, former head of FRI – the association for gender and sexual diversity, A the importance of a meeting for the queer environment, especially at Christmas.
– Such clubs are important throughout people’s lives, at major events in their own lives and important actions in society. For people who do not need such a sanctuary, it may be difficult to understand how important pubs or the club are to anyone.
She herself has visited the pub on Christmas Eve on several occasions to meet what she calls her queer family.
– Many people come here from different Christmas parties, some have had a good time, others may not have had as good a time. Maybe someone sat with the family who made homophobic comments, asked questions about the reading or gender identity, maybe they didn’t recognize your boyfriend or your name. Then it’s good to come to a place where people know what it’s like and who don’t have the same expectations of you as the family.
Holidays can be stressful for many, says Endestad.
– Ask questions such as «Am I going to be a target? Do I have a place to be?” can happen. Men in London is open to everyone. For many queers, the chosen family is probably as strong as the family you were born into.
Christmas table for regular guests
– I am a traveller, says Avni Fetisi, general manager at the London pub.
He nevertheless manages to have a chat with Vårt Lands’ emissary, between paperwork and stacking glasses in the bar. This afternoon it is set up for a Christmas dinner for the regulars. This year I have ordered a mat for 100 people.
– This is our way of getting back to the fast customers. We get so much of them, so it just had to be missing. It’s worth it.
Fetisi has Albanian roots from North Macedonia, and is not gay himself, but has worked at the well-known meeting place for queers in Oslo since 1996. Expensive hours and high prices for both electricity, food and drink have influenced many of the reviews lately, says he.
– It is not certain that everyone has someone to celebrate Christmas with either.
The Christmas dinner is a fixed tradition at the pub, a few days before Christmas. On Christmas Eve itself, it is open “only” in the nightclub part on the second floor from 9 p.m. It is usually full house.
– The taxis are happy to drive all kinds of people who want to go out on the town here, since we are one of the very few places that are actually open, says Fetisi.
The attack
On the night of Christmas Day this year, it will be exactly half a year since the shooting this summer. During the period after paying close attention to the pub.
– Many were upset, many came by and gave me a hug. But it was a bit too many times to stand at the door and explain what had happened, again and again, says Fetisi.
The mentioned Saturday evening in June was not a good day at work, says the bar owner, who points out that it could have gone even worse.
– It was serious what happened, but we should be happy that he was an amateur, I think sometimes, says Fetisi, and refers to the man charged with terrorism who managed to kill two people in the crowded street before he was put in the hill of civilians and guards.
Negative or hateful comments sting for any of us ends deeper after the terror, because we could know on the body that such attitudes can become practice
— Ingvild Endestad, former head of Fri, the Association for Gender and Sexuality Diversity
Ingvild Endestad believes the shooting may have contributed to some queer people feeling a stronger externality in their own family or local environment.
– Negative or hateful comments sting for any of us ends deeper after the terror, because we could know on the body that such attitudes can become practice, hateful words can actually become actions. Then the communities become incredibly important, she says.
She says that this applied both after the massacre in Orlando in 2016, where a terrorist killed 53 people at an LGBT club, and after the shooting at the London pub this summer.
Daniel Fjell had been on a TV recording and was actually supposed to go on to London on the evening of the shooting, but coincidences meant that he went home instead. Like many others in the environment, he knows several who were affected, and says several are struggling after what happened.
– It was heavy and tough when it happened. I was fed up and shocked. I also have consideration for the employees who do a good job.
For Fin Serck-Hanssen, it has been important to continue visiting the pub, despite the events.
– For me, who was not directly affected, it felt important to go your way, not to let terror define the lifestyle.
[ Knut Anders Sørum: – Jeg har ikke lyst til å være redd. ]
The church and the pub
Regular guest Fjell comes from Groruddalen and says he is a Christian. Grorud church and the London pub are two important places for him.
Do the church and the pub have the same function for you?
– Yes, in some ways anyway. Both parts give joy and strength in everyday life. I go to church to find peace and talk to the priest and other nice people, and I like to attend church coffee afterwards. In the London pub I come to talk to the people I know there and get some of the same security.
It’s a little past 4pm on a Monday afternoon, but it’s never too early for a little party in a London pub. From the compound, Rihanna echoes her winged stanzas; We fell in love in a hopeless place. On our way out in the December slush, we meet a bunch of new people in the revolving door. shine a light through an open door, it sounds from the loudspeakers behind us.
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London Pub
- Pub in the center of Oslo with a focus on gays.
- Open every day, all year round, including Christmas Eve.
- Got a lot of attention after the shooting attack on 25 June this year, which killed at least 20 people and injured over 20 people. Zaniar Matapour (43) is charged with murder, attempted murder and acts of terrorism.
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