2.3 CONTEXT

Industrial Heritage Evolution and Queer Communities in Sheffield

The evolution of the Industrial Heritage in Sheffield has also accompanied processes of displacement for marginalized groups such as Queer Communities.

Sheffield’s coal industry was the city’s major economic pillar until the early twentieth century, when it evolved into an industrial cluster with heavy industries like steel as a new primary element, earning Sheffield the nickname “City of Steel”. The steel evolution influenced people’s relationships within the space in which the workforce was highlighted as a homogeneous form of life. Indeed, the discourse of the so-called modern industrialization was the origin of multiple buildings and spaces in Sheffield where the central element of people’s relations was the accumulation of capital, rather than community connections and other forms of life.

From Connoly’s (2022) archive, it was also identified that during this process the presence of Queer communities in Sheffield were also accompanied by heteropatriarchal discourses that forced people to live behind. From hidden bars up to secret spaces where ‘Queer Revolutions’ take place as Sheffield wasn’t necessarily understood as an inclusive and safe space for Queer communities.

It is in this context, that the story of the process of recognition for Queer Communities started in Sheffield. With the demise of the steel sector after World War II, the historic region quickly deteriorated, being surrounded by abandoned factories and decaying housing. Since the origin of the industrial spaces was the labour workforce. These inhabited spaces started to be appropriated by marginalized people such as the Queer community.

From Gut Level’s archive (GL Archive 2022, pp.7) it is inferred that initially, the ex industrial spaces were available and affordable for them as a Queer collective. However, over the years this situation has been changing drastically. “As the city is developed, fewer spaces are available” (Gut Level, 2022, pp.7), and as their

Fig 7. Figure: Queer Celebration of Joy and Collective Connections taking Place in Gut Level Physical Space. (Source: Authors)

records demonstrated the council has increased legal surveillance for unlicensed parties and DIY venues. As a result, there are less and less friendly or safe spaces for Queer Communities left in these areas.

Figure: Queer Celebration of Joy and Collective Connections taking Place in Gut Level Physical Space. (Source: Authors)

The Beginning of a Process of Recognition

DIY Culture and Queer Spatial Agencies

It is in this context, where the potential of the spatial agencies of Gut Level appeared. Gut Level was born in 2019 as a DIY event space and collective that was part of a broader ecosystem of DIY organizations in Sheffield.

The ethos of DIY organizations seeks to recentre the relations of people from an ecosystem of organic and fluid connections where mutual aid and self-organization are set as the core of the collective practices. In that sense, as identified in the conceptual framework the role of the Queer Community’s connectedness in the cocreation of a sense of safety is anchored two-fold: from the emotional, to the self-agency realm.

In this ecosystem, Gut Level operates as a Queer organization that shares the DIY ethos regarding selfagencies and mutual exchanges between the members. One particular space where Gut Level started is the outskirts of Sheffield. As a result, parties, dancing venues, and concerts, among other cultural activities have taken place in Sheffield.

However, according to the process of urban transformation of Sheffield, even though there were originally empty and affordable spaces for DIY venues, this situation has changed drastically. In 2018, Sheffield’s original DIY venue ‘The Lughole’ was declared closed and the affordability of the original Industrial empty buildings has almost disappeared.