'Queer community knows losing spaces an emergency'

"What I found is that the queer community recognise the fact that it's a bit of an emergency in terms of how quickly we're losing spaces - the battle against nightlife in many ways."

Matthew Jacobs Morgan, who opened Coven earlier this year in the old G-A-Y bar, hopes his new approach to the space will entice people back to Soho.

"We just basically want to make this a space that is really being reclaimed by the queer community and is actually responding to the needs of what people are after right now so we just engage with artists in whatever way that we can," he told BBC London.

"We're a music venue, a nightclub. We're going to be open during the day as a queer department store with a coffee shop on top that you can work from."

Jeremy Joseph, who ran G-A-Y Bar on Old Compton Street for 25 years, says the area has been forgotten.

"It has no identity, we've lost it and there is no one doing anything to bring it back," he said.

"You've got a council who are doing nothing, you've got a mayor who's doing nothing.

"You walk into Chinatown, you know where you are. You walk onto Carnaby Street, you know where you are. Old Compton Street, it's just another street."

Michael Kill, chief executive of The Night Time Industries Association, said Soho's LGBTQ+ spaces were "hugely important to its identity".

He said: "Soho is world renowned for its sex positive, inclusive environments where people are free spirited and welcoming so I think it's vitally important for the image and also the cultural and social tapestry of London.

"Soho is under a huge amount of pressure, almost feels like it is trying to be sanitised in some respects by certain residents associations and there are challenges with Westminster as well so for us it's about championing the importance of this area for what it stands for and always has done.

"The worry that we have is Soho as an attraction globally - it's not losing its identity - but it is concerning that we are starting to lose some of those spaces that are vitally important for Soho as that attraction that brings people into London."

The growth in LGBT spaces has been seen outside of central London, including in Elephant and Castle in south London where there are now four relatively new queer venues clustered around Elephant Park.

David, chief executive of Milli Group, which runs these venues, said: "Our natural audience is people that literally live right here and don't necessarily want to travel into town.

"One of the things particularly about the Nelly is because it is a community focused and conversation, connection-led space, you're doing that with people that you live nearby... without necessarily having to get on a Tube or a bus.

"I think that's something that's really amazing about London, to be honest, is that we have all these incredible pockets of queer offering that you don't necessarily get in lots of other cities.

"We've got all these different almost gay villages around and in London and I think that adds to what Soho offers rather than takes it away."

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