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Vauxhall’s Post-industrial Pleasure Gardens: ‘Death Wish’ and Hedonism in 21st-century London

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  • Johan Andersson

    (School of Geography, Leeds University, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, j.andersson@leeds.ac.uk)

Abstract

In recent years Vauxhall in south London has been transformed and rebranded as an urban leisure zone for gay men. Disused railway arches and warehouses have been converted into nightclubs and a significant night-time economy has developed rivalling Soho’s existing gay village. However, with its commodified forms of public sex and high levels of recreational drug use, Vauxhall’s club scene looks rather different from the British gay villages of the 1990s. This article examines how the area’s nightlife entrepreneurs have capitalised on the recent liberalisation of licensing laws while drawing on the historical associations with the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (1660—1859) in attempts to market the area as a site of embedded hedonism. Overall, the aesthetic and cultural themes of Vauxhall’s club scene seem to contradict earlier assumptions about the desexualisation and sanitisation of contemporary gay culture.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Andersson, 2011. "Vauxhall’s Post-industrial Pleasure Gardens: ‘Death Wish’ and Hedonism in 21st-century London," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(1), pages 85-100, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:48:y:2011:i:1:p:85-100
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098009360238
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alan Collins, 2004. "Sexual Dissidence, Enterprise and Assimilation: Bedfellows in Urban Regeneration," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(9), pages 1789-1806, August.
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