Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ+) nightspaces oriented around migrant identities and histories in London, 1980s–present

How have urban night spaces been imagined, produced, experienced and narrated by LGBTQ+ migrants in London?

University of Leiden University of Leiden
UCL UCL
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Aarhus University Aarhus University
Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick

Aims

Our research looks into the socio-cultural value of nightlife venues and events for LGBTQ+ communities, focusing on spaces oriented around migrant identities and histories.
We examine the inter-relationships between queer subjectivities and ‘migrant orientations’ (Ahmed, 2006).
We consider the distinct qualities and public value of licensed premises (bars, pubs, clubs) alongside other formal and informal, transitory and long-running events that move between venues.
Working with partners we identify and gather evidence on case studies, seeking to understand why and how particular spaces have been created or appropriate as night spaces, and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in and around them.
These cases are considered in relation to policies and practices on heritage, the night-time economy and cultural infrastructure, given the increasing focus on these areas since the mid-2010s.

Summary

This project studies night-spaces, cultures and narratives of migrant LGBTQ+ communities in London (1980s-present). London is the focus because of its international profile as city with a large and diverse LGBTQ+ population, because of its histories of colonialism and migration, and because of the significant number of night-time venues and events oriented towards groups with specific national and ethnic identities. London’s Mayor and recently appointed Night Czar have prioritized the night-time economy and support for LGBTQ+ venues, recognizing the value of these spaces to engender belonging and social integration within and across communities with distinct forms of heritage. A reported fall of LGBTQ+ night venues (58% over the past decade) due in large part to real estate pressures has resulted in specific policy innovations and media narratives that the researchers will study, alongside the production, operation, cultural and intercultural significance of LGBTQ+ migrants’ night spaces and narratives.

This research adds to the limited number of studies of migrant LGBTQ+ communities in Europe new qualitative and empirical evidence on the socio-cultural value of nightlife venues for those communities and to public life more broadly. It will consider the distinct qualities of formal licensed premises alongside transitory and long running events that move between venues, serving groups who face barriers to inclusion in mainstream commercial night-scenes (e.g. women, people with trans and non-binary identities, queer and trans people of colour). It will analyze the cultural heritage embedded in specific buildings, interiors, venues and events associated with migrant LGBTQ+ minorities, offering insights on the dynamics of inclusion/exclusion to inform policies that might challenge prejudices and foster integration.

Team

Professor Ben Campkin
PI 2, Co-Director, UCL Urban Laboratory, Professor of Architectural and Urban History and Theory, UCL

Ben Campkin is Professor of History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism at The Bartlett School of Architecture and Co-Director of the UCL Urban Laboratory. He is the author of Remaking London: Decline and Regeneration in Urban Culture (2013), which won the 2014 Jane Jacobs Urban Communication Foundation Award. Ben is co-editor of Sexuality and Gender at Home: Experience, Politics, Transgression (Bloomsbury, 2017), Engaged Urbanism: Cities and Methodologies (IB Tauris, 2016) and Dirt: New Geographies of Cleanliness and Contamination (IB Tauris, 2007), and founding co-editor of Urban Pamphleteer (2013-).

Ben’s recent research on LGBTQ+ night spaces in London, including the report LGBTQ+ Cultural Infrastructure in London: Night Venues, 2006-present (2017), co-authored with Lo Marshall, have widely influenced recent policy and activism in London. The recent Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibition ‘Queer Spaces, London: 1980s–Today’, which Ben co-curated, featured case studies, archives and data from this research.

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Professor Matthew Beaumont
Associated researcher Professor of English and Co-Director, UCL Urban Laboratory

Matthew Beaumont’s research interests currently centre on various aspects of the metropolitan city, especially at nighttime. His most recent book is Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London, Chaucer to Dickens (Verso, 2015), the first instalment of an attempt to reconstruct a cultural history of the urban subject at night, from the Middle Ages to the present, in order to present an alternative to the modernist myth of the flâneur. The second book in this series, on which he is currently working, will focus on insomnia.

He was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2012-13 to pursue his research into nightwalking. In addition to working on London and other metropolitan cities at night, he is the author of a forthcoming book for Bloomsbury entitled Philosopher of the Night: Lev Shestov and the Counter-Enlightenment. He is a Co-Director of UCL’s Urban Lab.

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Lo Marshall
Research Fellow, Bartlett School of Architecture and UCL Urban Lab

Lo Marshall researches and teaches urban geographies of gender and sexuality as a research fellow at the UCL Urban Laboratory and doctoral candidate at The Bartlett School of Architecture and Department of Geography, UCL. Their doctoral research is a participatory project exploring gender diversity in Britain through the lived experiences of trans and non-binary people.

As part of an on-going collaboration researching LGBTQ+ Nightlife in London with Prof Ben Campkin, Lo recently co-authored an article in Soundings (Campkin and Marshall 2018), guest edited Urban Pamphleteer #7, LGBTQ Night-Time Spaces: Past, Present and Future (Campkin, Marshall and Ross 2018), co-curated a ‘Queer Salon’ at the Museum of London and contributed to the exhibition ‘Queer Spaces: London, 1980s – Today’ at The Whitechapel Gallery, London.

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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ+) nightspaces oriented around migrant identities and histories in London, 1980s–present

Aims

Summary

Team

Professor Ben Campkin PI 2, Co-Director, UCL Urban Laboratory, Professor of Architectural and Urban History and Theory, UCL

Professor Matthew Beaumont Associated researcher Professor of English and Co-Director, UCL Urban Laboratory

Lo Marshall Research Fellow, Bartlett School of Architecture and UCL Urban Lab

Related

Launch Event: Building a Sustainable Queer Nightlife in London

QUEER HERITAGE – UCL Institute of Sustainable Heritage guest lecture with Ben Campkin

Trans Urbanisms: Documenting and Creating Venues for Trans and Non-Binary Communities in London

Nightclubs, architecture and urbanism

Professor Ben Campkin
PI 2, Co-Director, UCL Urban Laboratory, Professor of Architectural and Urban History and Theory, UCL

Professor Matthew Beaumont
Associated researcher Professor of English and Co-Director, UCL Urban Laboratory

Lo Marshall
Research Fellow, Bartlett School of Architecture and UCL Urban Lab