Gay villages in the United Kingdom

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The United Kingdom has a number of gay villages. Bigger cities and metropolitan areas are most popular as they are deemed to be more tolerant and tend to have "a history of progressive local government policy towards supporting and financing LGBTQ-friendly initiatives."[1] There is also a noted circular pattern of migration, whereby once areas have established a reputation as somewhere LGBT people live, more LGBT people are drawn there.[1][2] LGBT-inclusive areas of UK towns and cities tend to be defined by "a distinct geographic focal point, a unique culture, a cluster of commercial spaces" and sometimes a concentration of residences.[2] It is thought that LGBT-inclusive areas help towns and cities in the UK to prosper economically,[3] but some believe the building of such areas creates an isolating effect on some LGBT people who want to blend in.[4]

Birmingham[edit]

Main article: Birmingham Gay Village

Birmingham is home to 60,000 gay people.[5] The Birmingham Gay Village, which became prominent in the 1990s,[6] is located around Hurst Street in Southside and features clubs, bars and shops.

Birmingham Pride is celebrated each year around the late May bank holiday weekend; its entertainment and festivities are centred around the Gay Village.[7] Organisers estimated that Pride brings around £15 million to the city's economy.[8] In 2014, it attracted over 50,000 people.[9]

The city also has its own LGBT centre, opened in 2013, for support with health and well-being.[10] Midlands Zone, the LGBT magazine for the region, was published every month (1997-2020.)

Brighton[edit]

See also: LGBT community of Brighton and Hove
A gay bar in Brighton during Brighton Pride

Brighton has a significant LGBT population,[4][11][12][13] and records LGBT history in the city since the 19th century.[14] Brighton Pride is the largest Pride event in the UK, celebrated at the start of August and attracting around 160,000 people every year.[15][16] Many LGBT pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, cafés and shops are located around Brighton and in particular around St James's Street in Kemptown.[17][18]

In a 2014 estimate, 11–15% of the city's population aged 16 or over is thought to be lesbian, gay or bisexual.[19] The city also had the highest percentage of same-sex households in the UK in 2004[20] and the largest number of civil partnership registrations outside of London in 2013.[21]

Bristol[edit]

Old Market is the main gay village in Bristol, with its scene centred on West Street.[22] Across the city centre, Frogmore Street in the Old City is a gay area. Queenshilling first opened here in 1992,[23] although the first post-1967 gay club to open in Bristol was the Moulin Rouge on Worrall Road, Clifton, in 1970.[24]

The city's first Pride took place in 1977 as a fundraiser.[25] Some unofficial celebrations took place in the 2000s until Bristol Pride was re-established in 2010.

Cardiff[edit]

See also: LGBT culture in Cardiff

Cardiff has been ranked as the 8th most accepting city in the world for the LGBT community[26] and is home to many popular gay venues such as the Golden Cross.[27] The first Pride to be held in Cardiff took place in 1985.[28][29]

Edinburgh - Portobello[edit]

Portobello, voted as one of the best neighbourhoods to live in the UK by The Times, is a vibrant gay community, with an annual Porty Pride event by the beach and a range of locally owned LGBTQ+ restaurants, cafes and local shops.

Hebden Bridge[edit]

Since the 1990s the Yorkshire market town of Hebden Bridge has been branded "the lesbian capital of the UK",[30][1] and is reported to have the highest number of lesbians per capita anywhere in the UK.[31]

Leeds[edit]

See also: LGBT culture in Leeds

Leeds's large gay district is centred around Leeds Bridge and Lower Briggate in The Calls.[32] Leeds Pride is the most popular Pride event in Yorkshire, bringing approximately 25,000 people to the city each year.[32]

Leicester, Nottingham[edit]

Nottingham has a big LGBT community[13] and hosts Nottingham Pride.

Leicester has a big LGBT community[33] and hosts Leicester Pride.[34]

Liverpool[edit]

See also: LGBT culture in Liverpool
Liverpool is home to the largest LGBT population in the UK.
Official street signage for Stanley Street in Liverpool's Gay Quarter

Liverpool is home to the largest LGBT population in the UK,[35][36] with an estimated 94,000 LGBT people living in the city, equivalent to the LGBT population of San Francisco.[37] Liverpool is also the first and only British city to officially recognise its gay quarter Stanley Street Quarter, installing street signs bearing the rainbow-coloured Pride flag to identify it in 2011 on Stanley Street, Cumberland Street, Temple Lane, Eberle Street and Temple Street.[38][39]

Liverpool Pride was established in 2010[40] and draws tens of thousands each year.[41] The city's annual Homotopia festival is run by the only lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer combined arts organisation in northern England.[42][43]

London[edit]

See also: LGBT culture in London
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is London's oldest surviving gay venue.

London's LGBT community has historically been centred around Soho since the 18th century, and Old Compton Street in particular, where bars, clubs, restaurants, cafés, shops and theatres now line the streets.[44] Vauxhall, known colloquially as Voho, is also popular, with bars, nightclubs and a sauna as well as the historic Royal Vauxhall Tavern and Above The Stag Theatre, the UK's only LGBT theatre.[45] Recently,[when?] venues in Dalston, Shoreditch and Bethnal Green have become popular with the LGBT community.[45] The Gay Liberation Front in the UK started in London in the 1970s, which spawned the first official UK Gay Pride Rally in the city in 1972.[46]

London's Pride festival is now celebrated across the centre of city at the end of June, with particular focus on the main stage at Trafalgar Square and venues in Soho and Vauxhall. Pride is an annual event that closes London's Oxford Street and draws the largest numbers of spectators in the country each year.[47] In 2014, more than 750,000 people attended London Pride.[48] This number reportedly grew to an estimated 1.5 million in 2019, making it the biggest Pride yet.[49] London is also home to UK Black Pride.

In an Office for National Statistics survey in 2010, London was found to be home to the highest percentage of British people who identify as either gay, lesbian or bisexual than anywhere else in the UK at 2.5%.[50]

Manchester[edit]

Canal Street is a popular LGBT destination in Manchester.

Canal Street has been the centre of Manchester's Gay Village since the 1960s.[51] Manchester Pride, held every year in the village at the end of August, started from humble beginnings in the 1980s to achieving tens of thousands of spectators in the ensuing years.[52] Manchester's Gay Village has been named one of the "most successful gay villages in Europe"[53] and the "gay capital of the north,"[4] a reputation enhanced by LGBT TV shows Bob & Rose and Queer as Folk, both written by Russell T Davies, which were set there.[54] Cucumber/Banana, also by Davies, was also set there.

The city of Manchester is estimated to be home to between 24,950 and 34,930 lesbian, gay and bisexual people.[55]

Sheffield[edit]

Sheffield is reportedly home to between 27,635 and 38,689 lesbian, gay and bisexual people and 3,300 trans people.[56]

In the 1990s, Sheffield's gay scene was concentrated in Attercliffe. By the 2010s, it had moved to the city centre.[57] In 2018, Sheffield had its first "gay quarter" established. Located on the corner of The Moor and Hereford Street in the city centre, it takes in the long-established Dempsey's bar and club and the newly opened Queer Junction. The 2018 LGBTQ+ Pride was its 10th anniversary.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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