Old gay bars birmingham

Too often, gay bars don’t continue the threats of gentrification and criminalisation. Yet some last adj enough to become important institutions in their own right.

This is true of the Nightingale, one of many queer landmarks in Birmingham.

In , 2 men named Laurie Williams and Derek Pemberton paid £ for ownership of the Nightingale, a rundown Indian restaurant on Birmingham’s Camp Hill. 

It was a landmark year for British gay history, thanks to the passage of a bill decriminalising homosexuality in intimate. It was also a bittersweet victory, one which came with a higher age of consent for gay men, limited jurisdiction (the bill applied only in England and Wales) and harsher punishments for gay people caught on the streets.

At the period, there were very few places for LGBTQ+ communities to show or explore their sexuality in public safely. Same-sex affection shown in straight pubs often led to violence and harassment.

There were a handful of gay club nights, but they came with the risk of being raided by police or exploited and overcharged by landlords. 

Williams and