Gay Guide to Manchester
Alan Turing was convicted of gross indecency in Manchester in 1952, took chemical castration rather than prison, and was dead two years later at 41. His statue has sat in Sackville Gardens since 2001, a few minutes' walk from the bars, and the 2017 law that posthumously pardoned thousands of men convicted under those same statutes is named after him. The city's more recent record is just as pointed: through the 1980s the chief constable of Greater Manchester ran raids on the gay bars and said in public that people with HIV were swirling around in a cesspool of their own making. On 22 February 1988 Manchester answered by staging the largest demonstration in Britain against Clause 28.
The Gay Village is built around Canal Street, and it is one of the few gay districts anywhere that genuinely is a district rather than a strip. Via, Bar Pop, The Brewers and Oscars sit on the canal itself; New York New York, The Eagle and Centre Stage are on Bloom Street; Churchills, Thompsons Arms, The Rembrandt, Vanilla and The Molly House fill the streets behind. Cruz 101 and Satan's Hollow share an address on Princess Street, and G-A-Y is around the corner on Richmond. Queer as Folk was filmed here in 1999 and put the whole place on television screens worldwide, which the Village has never entirely lived down or stopped benefiting from.
Away from the drinking, the LGBT Foundation runs out of Sackville Street, the Beacon of Hope stands in the gardens as the city's HIV and AIDS memorial, and Queer Lit over in Ancoats is one of the better queer bookshops in the country. Sparkle brings the national transgender weekend to the Village each summer.
Manchester Pride takes the August bank holiday weekend and effectively closes the Village to anyone without a wristband, which is worth knowing before you book that weekend expecting a normal night out.
The Village is a ten-minute walk from Piccadilly station and the whole thing is compact, well lit and busy on weeknights, which is not true of most British gay districts outside London.