Skip to main content

Home Life

7 May 2025

Queers, queens and kaffe in Southeast London – inside IKEA’s inclusive pop-up party

In partnership with IKEA

By Katerina Muszanskyj

Bimini DJing in a packed café while the crowd watches
Bimini brought the vibes at IKEA's pop-up party (Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)

IKEA partnered with party culture leaders Lab54 to create a series of pop-up housewarming parties across London to celebrate the opening of IKEA Oxford Street City

Välkommen hem, dolls! On a sunny Sunday in London, Attitude popped over to New Cross to attend one in a series of pop-up housewarming parties hosted by IKEA and party culture leaders Lab54 to celebrate the opening of IKEA Oxford Street City.

We were met by floods of gorgeous folks relaxing, dancing and hanging out in the backdrop of Corner New Cross Cafe. LAGOON kicked off the afternoon with tunes that kept those good vibes going from what we had all been up to the night before! The perfect place to top up. Even when we go to the coffee shop, we wanna hear those club classics, right? We got a chance to talk to him later in the day and he was just as much of a joy to speak to as he was to dance to.

Two drag queens pose playfully beside an outdoor table set with drinks and flowers, in front of a mural-covered wall.
Anyone for tea? (Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)
People sitting at wooden benches in a sunny outdoor garden area decorated with plants and colourful signs.
It was a rare sunny Sunday in East London (Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)
Bimini lying on a bed in an East London street(Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)
Bimini (Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)

We then went for a wander into the garden in search of something to drink. Nobody was serving coffee, but everyone was serving looks. Decked out with a chaise longue and soft rugs all over the floor, it was the perfect place to remedy a hangover. All we could hear was laughter – it was just what we needed.

We sat and chatted with scouse prin Hannah Jones, from the BBC’s new trans coming-of-age series What It Feels Like for A Girl. It’s a good job that IKEA furniture is comfy because we could have sat with her all day – and probably will at some point in the future.

A group of people have a pretend pillow fight on the street in East London
Pillow fight! (Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)

The allure of Luna, Eileen Eiffell and Bramley Apple was the only thing that could tear us away. It made complete sense that Attitude then spent the next hour gassing with the girls on the corner of Casella Road sprawled on a sofa bed with the words ’Anywhere but a club’ in red neon behind us.

Mid-natter, we noticed the Bimini hop out of their car and we knew things were about to get fun. We headed back inside to see what they had in store for us. For such a small human, they really do release the beast when it comes to throwing a huge party! So, we danced with all the gorgeous people, spilling out into the streets full of joy, laughter and a lot of love.

Gok Wan DJs to a busy crowd inside an East London bar
Gok Wan kept the party going (Image: Katerina Muszanskyj/Attitude)

Covered in twink sweat and missing an earring or two, we decided to see if any fresh faces had arrived in the garden. To our absolute joy, we found Gok Wan sitting on a bänka. This isn’t a fever dream… It all really did happen, thanks to the magic of Lab54 and IKEA. After a catch up, Gok took over the decks from Bimini, accompanied by four backing dancers, a confetti cannon and smoke machine. Seriously. It was as if we were at the best housewarming party in history.

Everyone was up dancing for as long as the wonderful people at Corner would have us. The sun was shining, the sense of community was strong, and it was one of Attitude’s all-time favourite Sundays. We want an invite to the next one!

In This Article: