Is Old Market’s stat as Bristol’s 'gay village' a thg of the past?

Contents:

• IS OLD MARKET’S STAT AS BRISTOL’S ‘GAY VILLAGE’ A THG OF THE PAST?
• THE BEST BRISTOL GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS BRISTOL
• GAY UNED KGDOM

IS OLD MARKET’S STAT AS BRISTOL’S ‘GAY VILLAGE’ A THG OF THE PAST?

It was then that Old Market saw s rurgence as the re of the cy’s LGBTQ+ scene and beme proclaimed by many as Bristol’s ‘gay village’. However, new data throws to qutn the neighbourhood’s morn and wily-regard stat as the cy’s ‘gay village’. In the once--a- data gatherg survey, the 2021 Cens rults officially clus LGBTQ+ people Bristol’s story, and reveals that here over six per cent of people are not heterosexual, and jt over three per cent of the South Wt clared themselv as gay or lbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual and queer.

8 per cent intifyg as lbian, gay, bisexual or other, while Barton Hill, the area which enpsulat Old Market, the figure is much lower at 5. This prompts the qutn: is Old Market’s stat as Bristol’s gay village a thg of the past?

THE BEST BRISTOL GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS BRISTOL

There was a gay scene and was the heart of the LGBT muny Bristol.

Harkg back to the ceptn of Bristol’s gay village, Steve said: “There was the Bear Bar, the Palace, the Retreat, Flamgos nightclub, the sna, Market Tavern and more. This is the ntext of homosexualy beg partially crimalised 1967, meang gay men uld have sex as long as was private, was only between two men and both were over 21.

For many, however, and s after, homophobia remaed rife. Emblematic of the wang of the gay-intified neighbourhood Bristol was the closure of the G Palace, a legendary venue famed for s precipoly slopg floor and drag queens performg among s fad Victorian granur. Even before then, dozens of other venu said goodbye to Bristol, leavg Bristol Bear Bar along wh OMG and the Queen Shillg, both on Frogmore Street, “the only gay bars the cy”, Steve lamented.

GAY UNED KGDOM

While ’s te that pub closur is a problem that has also stck straight venu, unlike gay venu, they don’t yet face the realy of beg an endangered speci. Gav Baker marched through Bristol Pri 2022 armed wh a plard llg for Old Market’s gay scene to be revived – photo: Betty Woolerton. “Bee of the persecutn of LGBT and queer people through the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, there was a real reason for gay venu, ” Gav told me on a recent afternoon 25A, the skyle punctuated by newbuilds stretchg to the sky visible om the wdow.

But, I thk, as society has bee more tolerant, queer people have tegrated or maybe homogenised more to the general society, there’s ls need for a village. Dpe this, there are lls to revive the once-btlg gay scene Old Market. Gav went to last year’s Bristol Pri wh a plard that read: ‘Make Old Market gay aga’, “to acknowledge the ongog gentrifitn the area”.