You would expect a queer establishment named BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! to be a little naughty. Maybe there’s a shirtless hunk who walks around offering champagne, or a Stroke tucked away in the corner. But that would fundamentally miss the point of BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! (30C Warren Street, Fitzrovia, London), a gallery-bar-café in London that counts at least one famous drag queen among its clientele.
Founder and owner Ghislain Pascal says BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! was conceived as a counterpoint to the noisy sex and party scene of his hometown of London. Though he now lives on a farm near Toulouse, France—dubbed the “Pink City” due to its preponderance of pink bricks—Pascal wanted to offer an intellectual haven in London that’s far removed from the “mm-ch, mm-ch” and thump, thump, thump of the clubs.
“It’s not a cruising space,” says Pascal. “We don’t stay open past 8 o’clock.”
The fine art photography on the walls, on the other hand, can be quite provocative, though with artistic vision. The sometimes-sensuous images define the elegant space, in which a visitor can imbibe wine and beer produced under the venue’s own label, as well as organic coffee. But the beverages are primarily a means of bringing the queer community together for cultural experiences. In fact, BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! wasn’t always a physical space. It started in 2018 as a program promoting gay fine art photography, but has since expanded to encompass exhibitions, books, a magazine, zines, photography courses and a new podcast, which features guests who stop by the London gallery to give talks. The series has been dubbed BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! MEETS.
Wander+Lust talked to Pascal about the space, his inspirations, his ambitions and his favourite London hotspots.
How did the idea for a physical gallery café space come about?
From 2008 to 2018, I had a gallery in London called the Little Black Gallery, and it was really hard work. When I closed that space and moved to France, I was, like, I’ll never do that again. At the back of my mind though, I always wanted to open a gallery space with a bar in it, and a café. The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! program had expanded and expanded and expanded from being just online to having exhibitions all over the world—we launched magazines, books, zines—and I just wanted to do it. So I did it.
Of course, it was the stupidest thing I ever did.
“Stupidest” because it presented a lot of challenges?
Financially. Yeah. I don’t know how anybody opens a business anymore, to be honest. I don’t think I’ve got another big project in me, because I’ve done so many different things in my life.
Although, I want more BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! gallery cafés across the world. I want one in New York. I want one in L.A. So this is just the beginning.
If someone were to walk in now, for the first time, with no idea what the concept is or what to expect from the space, what do you hope they would experience within the first five minutes?
First of all, it’s a beautiful space. I literally threw everything at it. It’s got, like, a pink onyx bar, marble-topped tables, Italian marble floors, wood panelling. It’s not your average gallery. It’s not your average bar. It’s like a really cool hotel bar. Then when you walk in, one side is all artwork, and the other side is all books and magazines and zines. It’s a really intimate, beautiful, chill space.
What I hate about galleries now is that they’re just white boxes. You can hear a pin drop. But when you walk into our space, there’s music. We have really nice staff—hey chat with you. They don’t just ignore you and look at their computer. They’re not even allowed to have computers.
I’m curious if the pink onyx was influenced by your proximity to Toulouse.
No, the interior designer I employed just showed me it. As soon as I saw the pink onyx marble, I was like, yeah, I’ve got to have that.
You’re originally from London, right?
Yeah. I’m half-English, half-French.
What would you say London queer culture has to offer that you can’t find in another city?
To be honest, I think London queer culture is kind of dead. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to create this space. I don’t think there’s a kind of intelligent, artsy queer space in London that you can go to. Soho is not like it used to be. Queer identity is kind of being stripped out and commercialized. There’s really very little left in central London in terms of queer visibility, which I think is a real shame.
What kinds of voices are you most excited to invite into this space as part of your “BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! MEETS” programming and accompanying podcast in the coming year?
I go after people who I think are interesting. Obviously, the big, big, big stars are not going to come to us. Although now, with the podcast, if they do something with us, it’s going to get an international audience. The podcast has done very well—we have a very big audience, a really global one.
So, yeah, the guests. We had a drag queen. Then a very famous DJ called Fat Tony. It’s a mix. The drag queen, Kitty. What’s she called?
Is it maybe Kitty Scott-Claus? From season three of RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.?
Yeah, yeah. Exactly. She visited the gallery. She came in a few times and reached out and said, “I love your space.”
You’ve said that BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! is the only gallery for queer fine art photography in the world.
I don’t say this as a boast. I say this because it’s a sad reality, and I’m always happy if someone can challenge me. I can’t find another one. I mean, there are galleries that have queer artists, but there’s not one that specializes in just what we do. We now have 87 photographers from 34 countries.
And from countries where being queer is not necessarily easy.
Yeah. That’s where I get the most joy. I look for photographers from countries that wouldn’t necessarily be represented. It’d be too easy just to have white American and European photographers. We have an Indigenous Peruvian photographer, from Iquitos. And I’ve just been talking to a Ukrainian photographer. My heart bleeds every time I talk to him, because he’s been stuck there now for years, since the war started. He can’t get out because he’s of that age. He’s got to stay in the country.
Is there one word that you hope visitors will associate with the gallery in London?
Can I have three? BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! It’s either that or our new line for the podcast: “Art, queer, culture.” I hope that kind of sums up what I’m trying to achieve. I do genuinely find it extraordinary that in 2025, it’s very hard to find intelligent queer conversations. There are hundreds of gay podcasts, but all they talk about is sex, douching, saunas. Is that really what we want to restrict ourselves to?
If that’s my legacy, that I created something that can talk about queer culture, then I’m happy. Fundamentally, the root of what I’m trying to promote is queer and gay fine art photography. That’s what I’m trying to achieve with the magazines and the books. That’s been a massive success. We’re in hundreds of stores across America, including Barnes & Noble. The magazine is not just in the places that you would imagine. I was just in— Well, this isn’t directly related to BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!, but I had an exhibition in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I never, ever thought I’d be going to Tulsa.
No one does. So when you’re not at BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!, where do you like to eat or drink in London?
That’s hard, because I have so many. On Charlotte Street, there’s a very well-known Japanese restaurant called ROKA (37 Charlotte St., London). There are a few of them now, but that was the original one. Around the corner from the gallery, I’ve discovered an amazing Chinese restaurant called Hunan (51 Pimlico Rd., London). Randall & Aubin (16 Brewer St., London) is Soho’s best seafood restaurant.
Are there any other queer spaces in London that you recommend?
I’ll definitely put Queer Britain (2 Granary Square, London) on that list, because every queer tourist that comes to London should visit it, and they need the support. It’s a really interesting space. It’s the first queer museum in the U.K. Also, London’s LGBTQ+ cinema Arzner Cinema (10 Bermondsey Sqare., London).
Studio Voltaire (1A Nelsons Row, London) is a contemporary art gallery with a bar and restaurant and a great shop, House of Voltaire. They champion queer artists including Ashish Gupta and Jake Grewal. Ballet Queer is the U.K.’s first queer ballet company. See if they have any performances in London.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
