The little London café that promises plenty of ‘BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!’
Looking for queer culture and the chance to talk art with locals in London?
Mark
One of London’s hidden gems celebrated its first birthday this month. The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! café, gallery and bookshop is located in Fitzrovia, near Warren Street tube station. A unique venue, it evolved from its owner’s love of queer photography.
Ghislain Pascal first launched The Little Black Gallery with Tamara Beckwith Veroni and Lindsey Carlos Clarke in 2008. They had a gallery space in Chelsea, London, for ten years. That space has now closed, but The Little Black Gallery continues to exist as a business, putting on exhibitions worldwide, managing artists, publishing books and magazines, and acting as an art consultant.
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! began as a Little Black Gallery project in 2018 to promote queer and gay fine art photography. It now represents more than 87 photographers from 34 countries — including China, India, Iran, Kenya and Russia – places where it’s impossible for artists to show their queer-themed work.
“BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! includes our very popular bi-annual magazine, books, zines, exhibitions, a new podcast, photography courses, and our main online art platform,” Pascal tells GayCities. “It was only natural to eventually open a BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café, which we did last October. We celebrated our first birthday last week. It is the only gallery dedicated to queer and gay fine art photography.”
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The venue hosts regular exhibitions, sells books and cute ‘Boys Boys Boys’ merchandise, and serves hot drinks and alcohol. It also hosts regular talks with artists and authors.
“Queer photography is still very much marginalised in the art world,” says Pascal, about his motivation for building the brand. “By building a community of photographers, we are able to get more visibility. Through our very popular BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! magazine and books, we have been able to build an international audience, as our magazine in particular is very well distributed around the world in more than 125 stockists.”
This includes Barnes & Noble in the US.
We often hear about queer venues closing, particularly bookshops. What have been Pascal’s biggest challenges over the last 12 months?
“The biggest challenge is convincing people to buy the artworks,” replies Pascal. “People love buying the magazines and books but are hesitant to buy the artworks, despite them being affordable (most artworks are between $500 – $1,000). I think people still feel embarrassed, which I find hard to believe in 2025. Until we can build a market for queer photography, the main galleries are not going to exhibit this work, and we will remain marginalised.”
Despite these challenges, there have been many highlights from the first year.
“I love our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! MEETS, which have been a great opportunity to invite some amazing guests to speak every Wednesday night,” says Pascal.
“This led to us to launch our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! podcast this May, as we had so much amazing content. It has become a great success, nominated as finalist for Best Arts Show in this year’s Independent Podcast Awards. Opening our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café has also helped us to extend the brand with our own BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! wine and beer. The wines all come from Gaillac in France, where I live, whilst the rosé is from Provence. They are very delicious!”
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! is the perfect location to catch up with a friend for a quiet drink or to arrange a first date. The Wednesday evening events also offer a great way to meet new, art-loving Londoners.
Forthcoming talks include comedian James Barr.
“We will also have a book signing with Charles Moriarty with his new book BROCK on Saturday, 8 November, as well as the launch of our new BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Zine with Sebastian Perinotti on 18 November.”
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