London's nocturnal queer geographies

Abstract

There are contradictory pulls in neoliberal cities. On the one hand there has been an acceptance of \nmainstream Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ+) identities, as celebrated for example \nthrough commercially sponsored and officially endorsed Pride rallies. On the other, real estate-led \nglobal city competitiveness is affecting our capacity to secure the heritage of queer publics, and for \nthem to keep a foothold in the spaces they have historically occupied. Internationally, researchers are \ncharting the effects of gentrification on neighbourhoods associated with LGBTQ+ communities. In the \nUK, since LGBTQ+ rights have been won in large part through European Union-led legislation, the \ntrajectory of an increasing liberalisation of attitudes and legal protections is not guaranteed. Recent \ndata shows losses of a wide range of cultural and social spaces, but the provision of LGBTQ+ nightvenues \nhas suffered an even more dramatic fall than has been seen for pubs in the UK overall; and \nLGBTQ+ night-venues have suffered disproportionately in London’s wider losses of nightclubs and \ngrassroots music venues, as they have been rapidly succumbing to commercial residential and \ninfrastructure-led developments. If pubs, generally, are important to the social life of neighbourhoods, \nLGBTQ+ venues function as vital infrastructure for these groups, providing spaces of care and \ncommunity against wider contexts of oppression and violence. In London, as in other cities \ninternationally, increasing attention is being paid to LGBTQ+ heritage alongside that of other minority \ngroups. But are these efforts in vain, given that t

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