#venue-closures

#venue-closures

It's impossible to say how many firsts were had within the walls of G-A-Y Bar on Old Compton Street. An innumerable number of LGBTQ+ people, young and old, will have flocked there from far and wide over the years to have perhaps their first experience of a gay bar, maybe even their first alcoholic drink, as well as their first taste of a different, brighter, queerer life.

The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) recently reported that the UK has lost three venues a week in the past three months, seven in 10 venues are failing to make a profit and a quarter of towns and cities that had nightclubs in 2020 now have none. Alcohol duties are going up, bills are going up, yet drinking habits and attendances have dropped, he says.