Those familiar with Glasgow’s LQBTQ+ night scene, mainly based near Merchant City and Queen Street station, will hardly be surprised that we’re considered one of the best in the UK for a night out, with The Flying Duck, in particular, racking up quite the fanbase thanks to its live music and vegan offerings. And it’s even garnered the attention of the pros at The Bottle Club.
Ranking in their ‘best UK LGBTQ+ bars’, the beloved venue, which is a sister site of Stereo and Mono, took sixth place, ranking just behind The Old Market Assembly in Bristol, On Bar in Manchester and The Viaduct in Leeds. The bar ranked highly for its ranking on search engines like Google, scoring 7.7 out of 10, as well as for its following on Instagram. The Flying Duck marks the only Glasgow venue to grace the list, which is quite the feat considering we’re blessed with some fantastic venues within the city.
In addition to The The Flying Duck being named one of the best LGBTQ+ bars in the UK, Glasgow was named one of the best LGBTQ+ party destinations in the UK, falling behind Brighton, London and Edinburgh who claimed the top three spots. Glasgow unfortunately lost out on a higher ranking due to its score for hate crime safety and Instagram hashtags. The city did, however, rate higher than some for its choice of hotels within the city, ranking in seventh place in this category out of twelve cities.
Deserving winner Brighton scored high across the board, with only drinks prices and hotel choice letting it down. Otherwise, it was named the safest place in the UK for the LGBTQ+ community to party, with minimal hate crimes reported in the area.
The research utilised a number of tools when gathering the data, including cost of living database Numbeo, reviews on multiple hotel booking sites, and hype on social media.