London

London has the most multipolar LGBTQI+ scene in Europe: no single neighbourhood carries all the weight. Soho concentrates the historic core (30+ venues around Old Compton Street) with classic bars, cabaret and restaurants. Vauxhall is the circuit/club pole south of the river. Shoreditch and Dalston host the alternative queer scene, DIY drag and trans/non-binary parties.

Heaven (Charing Cross, since 1979) is one of the biggest gay clubs in Europe. Property pressure has closed many historic venues over the last decade, but the offer is still the densest on the continent alongside Berlin and Madrid.

Pride in London is held in June-July and draws more than 1.5M attendees (the organiser's estimate). The march goes along Park Lane, Piccadilly, Whitehall and Trafalgar Square. It is the direct descendant of the UK's first march, on 1 July 1972 (around 2,000 people, according to Wikipedia), organised by the Gay Liberation Front.

London hosted WorldPride 2012. Supporting calendar: UK Black Pride (July, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park), Trans Pride London (July, Soho to Hyde Park) and the packed season of parties around the main weekend.

Soho is London's historic LGBTQI+ neighbourhood, in the heart of the West End. The core: Old Compton Street and the streets that cross it (Wardour, Dean, Brewer, Greek). Recognised as a gay village in the early 90s, although the LGBT presence in Soho goes back decades earlier.

The Admiral Duncan (target of the bombing of 30 April 1999) still operates as a living memorial. Gay's the Word, in Bloomsbury, is the oldest LGBTQI+ bookshop in the UK (1979). Tube: Leicester Square (Piccadilly/Northern), Tottenham Court Road (Central/Elizabeth) and Piccadilly Circus, 3-5 minutes on foot.

London concentrates the UK's densest LGBTQI+ infrastructure. Stonewall UK (founded 24 May 1989) is today Europe's largest LGBT organisation. Switchboard (the LGBT helpline, formerly London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, 1974) is still going. Gay's the Word (1979, Bloomsbury) is the reference LGBT bookshop. And modern activism started here: the British Gay Liberation Front was founded in London in October 1970, at the London School of Economics, and organised the country's first Pride march in July 1972.

LGBTQI+-friendly health services: 56 Dean Street (NHS, Soho — the reference sexual health clinic, free PrEP for residents, rapid HIV/STI testing). Tavistock and Portman for trans healthcare (in transition after the Cass review). The NHS is free for residents; tourists pay depending on where they come from.