The international chart-topping Manchester band The 1975 have helped finance a new LGBTQ+ community centre for London, making a significant donation that has allowed the project to secure its fundraising target.

Matthew Healy, the band’s frontman, told the Observer: “You might wonder why it is needed, and even ask yourself what exactly is everyone still scared of, but sadly, I think stigma still exists even in London and we still have some way to go.”

Healy, 29, added that he was surprised to find the capital city did not have a place for LGBTQ+ people to meet and support one another. New York, Berlin, Los Angeles and Manchester already have such venues – and London did once. A Gay and Lesbian Centre in Farringdon was shut down in the early 1990s, because of a lack of funding and management disagreements about its core purpose. But now a team of volunteers, including the activist and journalist Michael Segalov, are attempting to set up a new and more welcoming place for London’s large LGBTQ+ community that could have a more stable future.

“When a friend of mine sent me the link, I was quite surprised that such a good idea had not yet raised enough to get over the threshold,” said Healy, the son of actors Tim Healy and Denise Welch. “I am a bit wary of talking about it because I don’t want to appear to be virtue-signalling, but me and the others in the band all felt it was obviously a good thing to put our money towards.”Read more via Guardian