Nottingham is getting a major new LGBTQ+ district

The UK is home to several iconic LGBTQ+ districts – areas that have been officially recognised for their significance to Britain’s queer community.There’s the UK’s unofficial gay capital of Kemptown in Brighton, which has been home to queer-friendly venues since the 1920s. Canal Street in Manchester has been an LGBTQ+ safe haven since the ’50s and Birmingham’s Southside is where the country’s first LGBT Community Centre was established. Now, Nottingham is getting it’s own officially recognised gay village. 

Hockley, which is part of the city centre’s creative quarter and already well-known for its queer venues, is set to be transformed into the city’s LGBTQ+ district (aka ‘Rainbow Quarter’) later this year. The district will cover three streets: Broad Street, Carlton Street and Heathcote Street. 

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It’ll be designed in a similar way to the well-established gay villages in Manchester and Birmingham, with help from Carl Austin-Behan, Manchester’s first gay mayor and a key player in the creation of its own Rainbow Quarter. 

The idea of making Hockley a designated LGBTQ+ area was first mooted 10 years ago. Its significance to the city’s LGBTQ+ community dates back to the ’90s when The Health Shop, a centre offering sexual health advise to gay men, opened. Next door to that is the GAi Project, a gay and bisexual men's HIV prevention initiative launched by actor Sir Ian McKellen in 1994. In 1997, Nottingham’s first Pride event was held outside the Broadway cinema on Broad Street. 

Even before that, from 1972 to 2000 the area was home to the Mushroom Bookshop, one of only a few shops in the city that openly sold gay and lesbian literature and publications. There’s also the Lord Roberts pub on Broad Street, which has been a queer-friendly space since the seventies. 

Plans for establishing the district include putting up historical plaques and changing the city’s map. Campaigners and local councillors predict that turning Hockley into a designated Gay Village will boost footfall and tourism in the area. It’s expected to be officially established in time for Pride month in June 2026. 

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