Lu (left) and Alex, founders of House Of Pride
Actors Lu Corfield and Alexandra D’Sa met in Liverpool in January 2019, on the set of Channel 5 prison drama Clink. “One day, between shots, I was telling Lu about a space that I have always wanted to create, that I was very serious about setting up,” Alex tells me when we meet in east London on a sunny Friday morning. “A creative hub catering to the queer female and non-binary community. As I was talking about this, Lu went very quiet, and I saw her smiling. As she is now.” I look over at Lu, who is indeed grinning from ear-to-ear. “It’s going to sound exaggerated and cliched, and as though we’re trying to make a sweet story,” she chimes in. “It’s not. I was listening to someone describing back the very place I had in my mind, horrifically, for about 20 years.