Amy Lamé (b. 1971), founder of legendary gay club Duckie, ended up as a resident of King’s Cross when she married a vicar, Jenny. The flat in Bloomsbury came with her wife’s job in the Anglican Church. Amy discovered it once housed orphaned girls from the Foundling Hospital, who were training as domestic servants. The irony is not lost on Amy: she was too busy working as a radio personality, voluntary Mayoress of Camden (2010-2011) and purveyor of ‘progressive working class entertainment’ to do much housekeeping herself. Since 2016, ‘Night Tsar for London’ has been added to her string of titles.
Growing in New Jersey, Amy Lamé’s role model was the ‘glamorous’ local librarian. She never imagined she’d have a career as a performer. She moved to London in 1992 (shortly after coming out); it was a place she felt she accepted. Amy found a job in an LGBT café called ‘First Out’, and her friends said, ‘Hey, you’re really funny, you should do a one woman show.’ She’s been hosting Duckie since 1993: mixing live art, drag performance and vintage clubbing in an old music hall in Vauxhall. Amy traces Duckie’s brand of ‘homosocial honkytonk’ to the ‘alternative spirit of queerdom’ she discovered at Popstarz and The Bell pub in the 1990s.
Amy is reclaiming the night in her Night Tsar role at City Hall. She’s supporting everyone who works and walks in the shadows, and spearheaded a Women’s Night Safety Charter.
Amy loves Kings Cross, and its nightlife, so much that she never wants to leave – ‘I like the idea of being a permanence, in a place with so much impermanence.’
Story by Laura Mitchison and Lucy Morris