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