How official LGBTQ+ district could transform city for all

ANYONE who has ever found themselves in Hockley will most likely have spotted the district's clear support for the LGBTQ+ community.

- By GEORGE PALMER-SOADY

From the multi-coloured painted “rainbow roads” to gay bars and pubs, Hockley has been the city’s unofficial LGBTQ+ district for almost three decades.

Until now, that is. On the weekend of the city’s annual pride event at the end of July, it was announced that work would begin on having Hockley recognised as an official LGBTQ+ district.

By next July, the area could be recognised along with the likes of high-profile “gay villages” in Manchester and Birmingham. But what does it mean to turn the area into an LGBTQ+ district, and how could this change the bustling city centre district?

What is an LGBTQ+ district?

Put simply, it’s an area which has a high density of LGBTQ+ people, bars and clubs. Several cities have their own and some are known globally, such as Canal Street in Manchester - known traditionally as agay village.

Canal Street featured heavily on the acclaimed Channel 4 series Queer As Folk.

Historically, gay villages have become important for individuals to feel safe and accepted, but the nightlife also attracts people who aren’t LGBTQ+.

Why has Hockley been chosen?

Unofficially known as the city’s gay district for years, Hockley is steeped in LGBTQ+ history, dating back to the early 1990s, when The Health Shop, a centre which offered sexual health advice to gay men, opened.

Three years later, Sir Ian McKellen visited the Broadway Cinema to launch the GAI Project, a gay and bisexual men’s HIV prevention initiative in Nottingham.