In this time where gay venues are closing down all over London, we thought we’d catch up with some of the scene’s biggest names and discuss the city’s past, present and its future.
First up is Alf Short, landlord of one of our favourite Soho jaunts, Molly Moggs, and the alter ego to Julie Paid. Right now fishy queens, lip-syncing and death drops couldn’t be bigger, but you’ll usually find us hanging out with Julie and Jeff (Kristian) singing the old classics, having a knees up some traditional English drag at this intimate cabaret bar.

So, Alf, when did Molly Moggs open?
We opened our doors on 31st October 2001.

Really? I thought the pub was a lot older than that.
Well, I mean Molly Moggs has been here since 1732 but I didn’t get involved until 2001. It was just an ordinary, brewery-owned pub before that.

How did you go about turning it into a gay bar?
We’re not a gay bar…we’re not a straight pub. We’re not even a bisexual pub. We’re just a pub. If you respect us when you walk over that threshhold, you can stay. That’s how I think all pubs should be. Molly Moggs is not seen as gay by the other gay bars, but people who actually come in say ‘Oh you’re a gay bar.’ I find it sad that we’re not included.

Do you think that with London’s gay bars slowly closing, we are in danger of losing our gay culture?
I think there’s a definite need for an iconic gay bar, if you like. There does need to be three or four in somewhere like Soho that are exclusively gay or exclusively lesbian. But it shouldn’t be like, ‘Oh it’s got to be this’ or ‘It’s got to be that.’  I think the vast majority of pubs, from the ones that are left, should be more open-handed.

You guys have a such a harmonious mix of people in here. I love that.
Yeah, you’ll have six straight men in suits sitting here and then a group of trannies sitting on the next table. Then you have two lesbians sat down there and two butch guys in leather at the bar.

What is the key to making sure they all get on?
Just openness. Leave all your hang ups outside.

Didn’t you think ever think drag would put straight people off coming in?
Not really. I mean the only reason Molly Moggs works is because it has these four big windows. People know what they’re getting before they walk in.

And it’s always full.
Thankfully, although it’s not hard to fill this place is it? You can see straight away who everyone is. So whether it’s a straight couple, some businessmen, whatever, if they look in the window, think ‘Oh that looks fun,’ they’ll come in.
The pub has never been busier since I took over. I think it’s very hard to find anything different nowadays because it’s all mainstream pubs and clubs. It’s like McDonalds is opening up opposite. No one can afford to run a small business anymore. I don’t pay myself. We only keep going because of the number of people that keep coming through the door. Vauxhall is under threat too. Where will be the next gay village? There won’t be one. People don’t need them.

Do you know how the pub got its name?
The whole of this block in Soho used to be one big stable and this was the tavern. So it was called The Coach and Horses. But there was another Coach and Horses round the corner and Norman, the landlord, caused a fuss in the 80s, saying, ‘You can’t have two pubs called The Coach and Horses.’ And because this was just a Whitbread-owned pub, it wasn’t leasehold like it was now, they changed their name to Molly Moggs. No idea why.

Did you guys do drag here as soon as you took over?
Yes. I was already doing drag with Jeff Kristian. He was at the top of his game when I met him. I went in on his tailcoats if you like to all these fabulous venues like The Father Red Cap in Camberwell that’s now gone, The Two Brewers, The Black Cap that’s now gone too.

Like a drag mother.
Drag father. He’d hate being called a drag mother. I’ve just had my 21st birthday as Julie. So I was doing drag before I came in here as a co-owner with a view to doing drag here straight away. No one in soho was doing drag back then. It was a closed world. It was seen as a death knell. I said I was going to do drag here and everyone said what a mistake it would be. Three months later you couldn’t get another person in the place. That’s how successful it was. I think a lot of places had become too gay or too straight. There wasn’t enough flexibility in that. There wasn’t anywhere for trannies to go. There was nowhere for bisexuals to go. So we just opened it up as a theatre/cabaret bar. We just tapped into something that hadn’t been tapped into before.

Molly’s has a very clear idea of what kind of drag it is, no?
Yes. The thing is drag has been around since before Eliabethan times. Women weren’t allow in the theatre because it was thought it wasn’t a job for a lady. It was only in the 19th Century that women started to do theatre.
American drag is door whore drag. It’s looking glamorous, looking the business, being fierce. But it’s too much of that fierce attitude, there’s none of that warmth, that ‘Come on in…we’re not going to bite your head off, just suck it very hard…’ We’re a lot more gentle.
American drag is all about being seen,  like ‘Hey, you, I’m here! Take notice of me!’. It’s about being out there. British drag is about being withdrawn. It’s very quiet. We don’t want to be television whores. You have the Soho queens like Baga Chipz or whatever doing it, because none of the main queens wanted to do it. Dave Lynn, Dave Dale, Sandra…none of them wanted to be seen as Drag Queens of London. We’re a very different society, we only want to be seen by people who want to see us. We don’t want to force it on people.

Have those other kind of queens asked to perform here?
Oh yeah. We tried a few different queens over the years but you have to be able to hold a crowd for two and a half hours. I don’t know any other drag queen that holds the stage as long as I do on a Sunday afternoon. No one does a show for four hours. And because I use a mic, and don’t lip-sync, I can change it half way through and rip into someone or say something funny…well, I think it’s funny anyway. Ha…

Have you ever been attacked here? 
I had a guy who came in here once. He was a great big six-foot Irish squaddie who started mouthing off at the door. It was on a Wednesday night when we had no security. I told him I hoped his dick was as big as his gob. He said it was, so I told him to go fuck himself.  He made a few steps towards me and with my nails on and everything, I just went up to him, opened the door and threw him out. But he got up and started running towards me. I punched him out cold. I don’t know where I got the strength from. I walked back in, got back on stage, said, ‘Oooh I’ve lost all me nails.’ Everyone started cheering and I was like, ‘Oh don’t be silly, no one fucks with me.’

You can find Julie Paid on Facebook
Molly Moggs, 2 Old Compton St., Soho, London