page_title: Old Compton Street
section_title: Current
hierarchical_section_title: Old Compton Street / Current
caption_attribution_description: Admiral Duncan pub taken by C Ford March 04.
context_page_description: Old Compton Street is a road that runs east–west through Soho in the West End of London.
context_section_description: Today, the street is the main focal point for London's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. In Soho, central London, it features several gay bars, restaurants and cafés, as well as a popular theatre. Whilst a pedestrianisation project proved unpopular with local traders and was reversed, the street is closed to vehicular traffic for the Soho Pride festival one weekend each year, in late summer.
  The Prince Edward Theatre is located on the east end of the street. Until 2004 the long-running production of Mamma Mia!, a musical based upon the songs of ABBA, was showing at the theatre. When Mamma Mia! moved to larger premises in another part of the West End, a production of Mary Poppins moved in, but closed in 2008. It subsequently became home to Aladdin. London producer and director Adam Spreadbury-Maher lives at the northern end of Old Compton Street.
  In 1999, the Admiral Duncan pub was the site of a nail bomb attack which killed three people and injured over a dozen. A neo-nazi, David Copeland, was subsequently found guilty of the bombing (intended specifically to injure members of the gay community). Previously decorated in neutral colours, the Admiral Duncan was re-opened with a flamboyant pink and purple exterior with a large rainbow flag flying outside as a symbol of gay pride. The flag has remained there ever since, in defiance of Westminster City Council's planning permission laws.
  Along the street are numerous other gay bars including Comptons of SOHO and G-A-Y. Also on the street are a variety of cafés, tea rooms (including the original branch of the Patisserie Valerie chain) and restaurants (including Bincho, a yakitori restaurant and Balans, which unusually for much of England is open 24 hours a day), and sex shops.
  In the middle of Charing Cross Road, at its junction with Old Compton Street, beneath the grill in the traffic island in the middle of the road, can be seen the old road signs for the now-vanished Little Compton Street, which once joined Old Compton Street with New Compton Street.
caption: The Admiral Duncan public house.
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