Third year students from our Geography and Environment courses travelled to London this November, as part of our popular Geographies of Genders and Sexualities module. Taught by Dr Nick McGlynn and Dr Paul Gilchrist, this module teaches students to use geographic thinking to better understand contemporary issues. Crucially, though we love Brighton, it’s important to get away and investigate other sites! For this module we visit London, and particularly the famous Soho area.
The focus is on urban LGBTQ+ scenes and spaces. Having studied the history of LGBTQ+ scenes in a lecture, students visited Soho to see first-hand how these areas have transformed over the past decade – and continue to transform.
LGBTQ+ communities as well as sexuality more broadly have become a key part of urban redevelopment initiatives. They can be used to brand areas as diverse, inclusive and fun. This in turn leads to changing use of the area. In Soho we saw that this meant more expensive housing and leisure outlets, with many of those who created this exciting area increasingly pushed out of it.
That wasn’t to say, though, that there’s no LGBTQ+ scene in Soho! Far from it – Nat Bannister (BSc Geography) said “I loved that average people walking through the street were celebrating their queerness in some way – it felt very inclusive!”. Students also learned to think carefully and critically about what it means to be an ‘LGBTQ+ space’. Is it just about design and aesthetics, like rainbow flags? Is it where gay men gather in numbers to socialise? Is it anywhere that claims to be an LGBTQ+ space? Or is there something about the politics and intentions underpinning the space that matter?
This year we also had a chance to visit London’s fantastic Queer Britain museum for the first time. We saw how geographic concerns like safe spaces, borders, and public visibility have informed over a century of LGBTQ+ life and activism in the UK. Students also got to contribute to some of the community displays with their own additions. We’ll definitely be returning here in future years!
Finally, we explored our data in a workshop the following day. We collated our notes and photographic evidence on a shared Padlet, and did some rapid thematic analysis to make sense of what we’d seen.
Students were sceptical of rainbow iconography as a marker of LGBTQ+ spaces, seeing it as just advertising when used by mainstream commercial outlets. But they also noted better awareness of differences within ‘LGBTQ+’ by spaces that seemed to be by the community, for the community. And, students pointed out that seemingly trivial features like graffiti, posters, stickers, and clothing meant that the whole area – rather than any one bar or shop – felt like an LGBTQ+ space. This created a sense of community and even ownership of the area.
Soho is always a fascinating area to visit, but with the addition of Queer Britain, we’re eager to explore other LGBTQ+ spaces in the capital in future. Who knows where we might end up next year!
A quote from our student Mia Brown (BA Geography): “Soho was a great field trip that reminded us there are other queer spaces than just Brighton. We also saw how the area attracts not just LGBTQ people but also workers from the financial and creative sectors.”
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