Some were bought by corporate breweries that turned them into straight venues.
The commercial gay bar and pub sector boomed in the 1990s. “It’s like losing the Asian community from Brick Lane.” The sense of Soho as a gay village or Vauxhall as a gay village is going,” he says. And the more places that are threatened, the harder it is to maintain community – especially when whole locations are being lost. Losing four or five in the space of a year is a big impact. For most people, it’s the first time they’ve been surrounded by LGBT people.”Ĭliff Joannou, who edits London gay listings magazine QX, estimates that 25% of LGBT venues have closed in the capital since the recession. “Young people look to these as safe places where they can feel accepted, especially if they’ve been rejected by their families. He sees it as a worrying development because bars and clubs aren’t just places to party but crucial sites of community and belonging. “There does seem to be a closure epidemic at the moment,” says Tony Butchart-Kelly of the Albert Kennedy Trust, a charity that works with at-risk LGBT youth.
The future of four or five more hangs in the balance, and outside London, cities such as Brighton and Manchester are also suffering. In the capital alone, more than a dozen spaces have closed, from Vauxhall superclub Area in south London, to local pubs north of the river Thames, to lesbian institution Candy Bar in Soho and Madame Jojo’s, home to many queer nights.
But the past couple of years have been notably hard for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) venues in the UK. Pubs, bars and clubs spring up in one area, thrive for a while and then fade away, only to pop up somewhere else. H istorically, the gay scene has been a moveable feast.