KCL or QMUL for English?

I'd really like people to tell me I'm just being nit picky here and that my opportunities are pretty equal at each, but at the same time I don't want to be lied to.

Well, if you ask me, you're mostly just being nit picky here and your opportunities are pretty equal at each. With an English degree potential employers are most likely to be more interested in the fact that you have a degree, and especially in any relevant experience you have in whatever field they are in, than they are to be interested in the specific university you attended, provided the university you attended is a recognisably good one, which QMUL is. As you outline, in your case there are a bunch of known disadvantages attached to taking a year out and reapplying, and you would be taking them on in exchange for an unknown possibility.

By the way (and I appreciate that this is a long way off, but I thought I'd mention it), I'd advise against doing an MA in creative writing or publishing unless you have specific, focused plans for using the qualification afterwards -- or, at least talk to people in publishing / creative writing about it before you do. I'm not saying every MA in those two fields is an unwise investment, but I suspect a lot of them are.