Lessons to be Learnt from Heaven’s Mistakes
Heaven is arguably the most famous LGBTQIA+ nightclub in London. Since it opened in 1979 it has expanded to form the GAY chain with bars all over London and beyond. For many, Heaven is the nightclub of choice. Every single night of the week Heaven has huge lines outside, and on the weekends the queues extend up De Villiers Street and around the corner past Charing Cross station. This status among club-goers also transcends to famous people, with celebrities such as Adele, Charli XCX, and Madonna making appearances at Heaven, showing that it is a venue taken seriously by people of status. Recently, Heaven had its alcohol license suspended because a security guard has been charged with the rape of a woman.
Photo of a performer wrapped in a rainbow flag on stage in front of a crowd at Heaven nightclub.
This is not the first troubling incident at Heaven; unfortunately, they have had many over the years and the LGBTQIA+ community have complained endlessly. These issues range from LGBTQIA+ people not being let in because they ‘look straight’ to complaints of sexual harassment and assault that have gone unaddressed. Ultimately, the overriding issue is that LGBTQIA+ people don’t feel safe or welcome at Heaven. I believe that properly addressing their issues through robust DEI and Safeguarding policies would fix this, and transform Heaven into a genuinely safe space for LGBTQIA+ people. Without change, we are at serious risk of losing one of the most prominent queer spaces in London.
‘Gay bar’ is more than just a label
Heaven brands itself as an LGBTQIA+ space, however, this doesn’t necessarily mean it is safe for all LGBTQIA+ people. The club has had a reputation for causing trouble with people of colour since it opened in the late ‘70s and in recent years trans people and LGBTQIA+ women have spoken out about issues with security staff. These complaints have gained traction on social media and it’s hard to believe that the owner, Jeremy Joseph, could have missed them entirely. Joseph has made openly racist comments in the past and whilst he has apologised for them people of colour continue to have issues getting into Heaven due to the behaviour of bouncers. LGBTQIA+ people have complained about Heaven for far too long; whether it’s lesbians complaining about harassment from men who have stated they are there because they know women go there, trans people not being let in because they are ‘straight’, or non-binary people having their identity invalidated by security staff. Now, Heaven has had an incident that they cannot cover up, but, this incident would never have happened if they had addressed the culture that was clearly growing amongst security staff over the years.
Empowering staff and safeguarding customers
There are many steps Heaven management could have taken to prevent the suspension of their liquor license. If management took customer feedback onboard they could have vetted and challenged security staff. Many of the issues (including the key incident leading to the temporary closure) revolve around the actions of security staff, who are often hired externally. But this doesn’t mean that Heaven is off the hook. What management should have been doing is establishing robust vetting processes for security staff, followed by codes of conduct to make sure they behave suitably for an LGBTQIA+ venue. It is easy for the owner to blame external security staff, but ultimately staff are being employed by a business that brands itself as an LGBTQIA+ safe space, therefore the responsibility is on the business to make sure that external actors behave. Security staff and other external employees will only misbehave if they believe that the culture of the business that employs them will allow for misbehavior. I am unaware of what internal steps, if any, have been taken to address previous incidents, but whatever they were Heaven has become more and more unsafe for LGBTQIA+ people. Management needed to train staff and empower them to call out inappropriate behaviour when it is exhibited by security staff.
This shows the importance of genuine action in DEI. Heaven is an incredibly famous venue and the simple label of ‘gay bar’ has not been able to save its reputation. For too long the management at Heaven have watched as swathes of people complain about inappropriate conduct from patrons and security staff that goes unchecked. The lack of action to establish Heaven as a genuinely safe space has led to an incident being filmed and picked up by the press in May, and now Heaven is shut until a full license hearing has been conducted in December.
Simply stating that your venue is an LGBTQIA+ safe space is not enough, you have to follow this with genuine action to make your space inclusive. Empowering your staff to challenge and call out behaviour allows you to build true inclusion. DEI is more than just having a training session when someone complains, you have to empower staff members otherwise you will constantly be fighting fires instead of addressing the source of the problem. By not empowering your staff, you land yourself in a similar situation to Heaven now; inclusion- and safeguarding-related complaints have gone unaddressed for years and now the entire business is in jeopardy.
