LGBT History Project - User contributions [en]

LGBT History Project:Pictures wanted

2026-07-15T08:59:14Z

LGBT-HP: See also: before/after slider

This is a list of pictures needed to illustrate our articles. Pictures should be public domain, or uploaded with the permission of the copyright holder. Most pictures on websites (other than [[Wikimedia Commons]], which is the source of many pictures used on this site) are likely to be unacceptable because of copyright restrictions. When a photo has been uploaded the name will be <s>struck out</s>.

See also [[:Category:Articles with no pictures]].

{{columns-list|4|
*<s>[[Ajamu X]]</s>
*[[Alkarim Jivani]]
*[[Alice Purnell]]
*<s>[[Antony Grey]]</s>
*<s>[[Alan Bray]]</s>
*<s>[[Angela Mason]]</s>
*<s>[[Biograph]]</s>
*[[Brian Kennedy (journalist)]]
*<s>[[Central Station]]</s>
*<s>[[City of Quebec]]</s>
*<s>[[David Equality Watters]]</s>
*<s>[[David Hockney]]</s>
*<s>[[Douglas Slater]]</s>
*<s>[[James Agate]]</s>
*<s>[[Fred Barnes]]</s>
*<s>[[Denis Lemon]]</s>
*<s>[[Henry Badenhorst]]</s>
*<s>[[Henry James Fitzroy, Earl of Euston]]</s>
*<s>[[Ian Harvey]]</s>
*<s>[[John Curry]]</s>
*<s>[[Jonathan Harvey]]</s>
*<s>[[John Wolfenden]]</s>
*<s>[[Lionel Blue]]</s>
*<s>[[Liz Sayce]]</s>
*[[Louis Eakes]]
*<s>[[Margot James]]</s>
*[[Mark Bolland]]
*<s>[[Mary Portas]]</s>
*<s>[[Matt Goss]]</s>
*<s>[[Michael Brown (politician)]]</s>
*<s>[[Mike Freer]]</s>
*[[Nicholas Udall]]
*<s>[[Nigel Evans]]</s>
*[[Norman Redman]]
*<s>[[Patrick Strudwick]]</s>
*<s>[[Peter Mitchell]]</s>
*<s>[[Peter Watson]]</s>
*[[Philippa Drew]]
*<s>[[Phyll Opoku-Gyimah]]</s>
*<s>[[Rev Richard Coles]]</s>
*<s>[[Rhona Cameron]]</s>
*<s>[[Robert DeVere, 9th Earl of Oxford]]</s>
*[[Robert Jones]]
*<s>[[Ship and Whale]]</s>
*<s>[[Symon Hill]]</s>
*[[Thomas Cannon]]
*<s>[[Tim Bennett-Goodman]]</s>
*<s>[[Tim Hely Hutchinson]]</s>
*<s>[[Wallace Grevatt]]</s>
*<s>[[White Swan, Commercial Road]]</s>
*<s>[[William MacDonald]]</s>
}}

==See also==
[[Articles needed]]
*[[Help:Before-after slider]] – present a historic photo and a modern re-shot as a draggable before/after slider

[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

Help:Contents

2026-07-15T08:59:12Z

LGBT-HP: Add Illustrating articles section (before/after slider + Rephoto + image policy links)

This page, '''Help:Contents''', gives guidance on how to use the UK LGBT Archive Wiki, and also how to create new articles and improve existing ones.

''For generic help on editing Mediawiki pages, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents.''

==Finding information==

To find information about a particular person, place or other subject, type the subject in question in the search box at the top right and click "search". Note that the earch facility only finds whole words. To search for parts of words, use Google and include "site:http://www.lgbthistoryuk.org/wiki/" in the search box.

Alternatively you could click "Random page" at the left to see an article chosen at random, or "Recent changes" to see which articles have been added or updated most recently.

You can also navigate between one article and another. Almost all articles have '''links''' to other articles. Links are shown [[Help:Links|like this]] - normally in blue, depending on your individual settings. If you click on a link it will take you to another article with more information about the subject in question. Links that look [[like this]] (normally red) point to articles that haven't been written yet: it's one of the aims of the project to turn all the red links blue by creating new articles!

Every article is also linked to one or more '''Categories'''. So for example if you're looking at a page about a particular painter, you'll probably see [[:Category:Painters]] in a box at the bottom of the page. If you click on this it will take you to a list of articles about other painters. All the categories are arranged in a hierarchy below [[:Category:Main categories]] which thus gives an overview of all the classes of information within this Wiki.

==Becoming an editor==

In principle, anyone at all should be able to create and edit articles on this Wiki. In practice we had problems with people who were creating spam articles unrelated to LGBT History. If you would like to contribute to the Wiki, you'll need to become a registered user. E-mail jonathan@lgbthistoryuk.org with your name, email address, and a chosen "Username" for this site and you'll be set up as a user.

==Starting to edit the Wiki==

Once you've been signed up as a registered user, it's probably best to spend some time looking at articles and improving them before you create an article of your own. If you find something wrong in an article, perhaps a spelling mistake, or something you know is factually wrong, click the "Edit" tab at the top of the page. This will show you the page in its markup form. Notice how this relates to the article as it's normally displayed. If you feel confident, just make the changes. To show what you've been doing, put a few words in the "Summary:" box at the bottom, to tell other editors why you made the changes. Once you're happy, click the "Show preview" box at the bottom of the screen and make sure that the article looks as you expect. If all is well, click "Save page" and the new version will be saved in the encyclopaedia.

See also: [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].

==Creating a new article==

Once you've had some practice editing articles, you may want to create a new article from scratch. Maybe there's a person, place, club, pub, group, or event, that you know about that has an LGBT UK connection and is not yet included. Maybe it's one of the "redlinked" subjects listed at [[Special:WantedPages]], or maybe it's something we haven't even heard of.

Before creating an article you should search to check that there is no suitable article that already exists. If an article on the topic you want to create is there, but you think people are likely to look for it under some different name or spelling, learn how to add a redirect with that name; adding needed redirects is a good way to help improve this Wiki.

Consider adding your information to existing articles that might include information about the subject of the article you propose. For example, if you want to write an article about a band member, you might search for the band and then add information to that broader article about that band member. This is the best thing to do if the subject of the proposed article has only limited depth.

If no suitable articles already exist, then you need to start a new article.

In the search box near the top right of a page, type the title of the new article, then click Go. If the Search page reports :<tt>"There were no results matching the query. Create the page "[[xxx]]" on this wiki!"</tt> (where <tt>xxx</tt> is the name of your subject in red) then you can click the red article name to start editing the article.

To start a new page, write a first sentence introducing the subject. This should normally start with the subject title (in bold) and state what sort of person, thing etc the subject is, for instance:

:'''Somerset Lesbian Network''' ('''SLN''') is a group for lesbian, bisexual and questioning women in Somerset.

In the case of a person, always include the dates of birth and death (if known), and what the person is noted for, for instance:

:'''Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill''' (1874–1965) was a British writer and statesman, who led Britain to victory in the Second World War.

The other thing you should always include in a new article is the sources for the information in it.You should provide a source for any statement that might be contested. Add the reference immediately after the sentence, surrounded by <tt><nowiki><ref></nowiki></tt> and <tt><nowiki></ref></nowiki></tt>, for instance:<br>
<tt><nowiki><ref>"Obituary: Sir Paul Latham", The Times, 26 July 1955, page 11.</ref></nowiki></tt><br>
or<br>
<tt><nowiki><ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/consenting-adults.shtml</ref></nowiki></tt>

The references will appear as numbered footnotes at the end of the article.

Later, you'll learn how to improve the formatting (and see [[Help:Editing]] for guidance on how to use the Wiki markup).

When you are done, press "Show preview" to take a look at how the page will appear. Try to fix any formatting errors, then click "Save page" at the bottom. Your article is now part of the Wiki and may be edited by anyone.

==What subjects are suitable for the Wiki==

In general, the Wiki covers any subjects related to LGBT life in the [[UK]] from the earliest times to the present day: remember today's current events are tomorrow's history. Each article should make it clear how it fits in: for instance if writing about a person, make it clear whether they are an LGBT person themselves (and provide references for this, we're not in the business of "outing" people!) or whether they're involved in some other way (for instance by speaking for or against gay equality) and what their connection is to the UK. In general every article should refer to a source of information, a book, newspaper or magazine article, or external website, that can back up the details you've provided.

==Use your own words==
Write the article in your own words. Do not copy more than a couple of sentences from a published source, and even then give a reference, as otherwise you are likely to be infringing someone's copyright.

There's a particular issue with Wikipedia - some of the articles in this Wiki rely heavily on Wikpedia articles, and a few are direct copies (which is permitted under the [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights|CC BY-SA]] licence used by both Wikipedia and this Wiki, provided it's acknowledged). But ideally this is something to be avoided. as the balance of the article will probably be totally wrong. For instance the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill article on Winston Churchill] on Wikipedia is over 166,000 bytes long and still growing, but doesn't make any mention of any LGBT issues. The [[Winston Churchill|article about him on this Wiki]] is less than 4,000 bytes long and has only the briefest summary of his life, but mentions a number of points of LGBT interest.

==Use a neutral point of view==
Write all articles in the third person: don't say "I", "we" or "you" except in direct quotations (help pages like this are an exception). Each page should read like an encyclopaedia page, not an advertisement. Don't give people's ages - say when they were born (their age will be different next year), and don't use expressions such as "this year", or "last year".

== Gathering references ==

Gather sources to the information for your article. To be worth including in the encyclopedia a subject must be sufficiently notable and its notability must be verifiable through references to reliable sources. These principles are identical to those used in Wikipedia. However in practice, in this Wiki we aim to be comprehensive, and we're prepared to be a little less picky than Wikipedia would be. We won't normally reject an article as "not notable", provided that it relates in some way to British LGBT life, and that there is some information about the subject in a published source. A large proportion of our articles would not be considered notable enough for Wikipedia.

The ideal is always to use reliable sources; that is sources that exercise some form of editorial control. Examples of reliable sources include books published by major publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed scholarly journals, websites of any of the above, and other websites that meet the same basic requirements as any print-based source. In general, sources with NO editorial control are not generally reliable, for instance self-published zines, blogs, web forums, usenet discussions, BBSes, fan sites, and the like. Basically, if anyone at all can post information without anyone else checking that information, it is probably not reliable, but may be quoted if there is nothing better.

Once you have references for your article, you can learn to place the references into the article. But do not worry too much about formatting them properly. It would be great if you do that, but the main thing is to get references into the article even if they are not well formatted.

== Things to avoid ==

'''Advertising'''
Please do not try to promote your product or business. Please do not insert external links to your commercial website unless a neutral party would judge that the link truly belongs in the article; if you are writing about a product or business be sure you write from a neutral point of view, that you have no conflict of interest, and that you are able to find references in reliable sources that are independent from the subject you are writing about.

'''Personal essays or original research'''
This Wiki surveys existing human knowledge; it is not a place to publish new work. Do not write articles that present your own original theories, opinions, or insights, even if you can support them by reference to accepted work.

'''A single sentence or only a website link'''
Articles need to have real content of their own.

== And be careful about... ==

'''Copying things. Do not violate copyrights'''
To be safe, do not quote more than a couple of sentences of text from anywhere, and document any references you do use. You can copy material that you are sure is in the public domain, but even for public domain material you should still document your source. Also note that most web pages are not in the public domain and most song lyrics are not either.

'''Good research and citing your sources'''
Articles written out of thin air are better than nothing, but they are hard to verify, which is an important part of building a trusted reference work. Please research with the best sources available and cite them properly. Doing this, along with not copying large amounts of the text, will help avoid any possibility of plagiarism.

'''Advocacy and controversial material'''
Please do not write articles that advocate one particular viewpoint on politics, religion, or anything else. Understand what we mean by a neutral point of view before tackling this sort of topic.

'''Extremely short articles that are just definitions'''
Try to write a good short paragraph that says something about the subject. We welcome good short articles, called "stubs", that can serve as launching pads from which others can take off. If you do not have enough material to write a good stub, you probably should not create the article. You should mark the article with the "stub template" by including <nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki> towards the end of the article. Stubs help track articles that need expansion.

== And then what? ==

Now that you have created the page, there are still several things you can do.
Keep making improvements.

Generally, an article is nowhere near being completed the moment it is created. There is a long way to go. In fact, it may take you several edits just to get it started.

If you have so much interest in the article you just created, you may learn much more about it in the future, and therefore, have more to add. This may be later today, tomorrow, or several months from now. Anytime, go ahead.

== Improve formatting ==

Make sure there are incoming links to the new article from other articles (click "What links here" in the toolbox) and that the new article is included in at least one appropriate category (see help:category). Otherwise it will be difficult for readers to find the article.

Remember that others can freely contribute to the article when it has been saved. The creator does not have special rights to control the later content.

== Illustrating articles ==

A good photograph brings an article to life. See [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights & Policy]] for where images may come from and the copyright rules, and [[LGBT Archive:Pictures wanted|Pictures wanted]] for articles that still need one. If you have a modern photograph of a place that also appears in a historic image, you can show the two together as a draggable [[Help:Before-after slider|before/after slider]] – line the pair up first with the free [https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app].

[[Category:Wiki help]]

Help:Before-after slider

2026-07-15T08:58:46Z

LGBT-HP:

The '''before/after slider''' lets a reader drag between a historic photograph and a modern re-shot of the same view. It is a natural companion to '''Rephoto''': the free [https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app] lines your new photo up with the old one, then both are uploaded here and shown together with a draggable slider. Rephoto was created by Jonathan Harbourne, the founder of this wiki.

== Live example ==
{{Before after
| before = Beforeafter-demo-then.png
| after = Beforeafter-demo-now.png
| caption = Placeholder demo – drag the handle to wipe between "then" and "now". These are stand-in images until real photos are added.
}}

== How to use it ==
'''1. Align the pair.''' Use the free '''[https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app]''' to line your new photograph up with the historic one – this is what makes the wipe match. That page has the download and a full explanation of how to use it.

'''2. Upload both photographs''' to the wiki. They should be the same size and crop, which is exactly what Rephoto produces.

'''3. Add the slider''' to the article:

<pre>
{{Before after
| before = Historic_photo.jpg
| after = Modern_photo.jpg
| caption = Royal Vauxhall Tavern, then and now
| beforelabel = 1985
| afterlabel = 2026
}}
</pre>

; before / after
: The two image filenames (required).
; caption
: Optional text shown beneath the slider.
; beforelabel / afterlabel
: The small corner tags (default "Then" / "Now").
; width
: Maximum display width in pixels (default 640).

See also the template: [[Template:Before after]].

LGBT History Project:Illustrations

2026-07-15T08:54:51Z

LGBT-HP: Add before/after slider (then-and-now photos) reference + Rephoto link

==Photographs==
This wiki needs more '''Photographs'''. Ideally, every article should have an illustration (or more than one) and in particular articles about people (since the invention of photography) should have a photograph. But we can't use any old photograph that happens to be on the web, because of copyright restrictions.

The photographs on this site come from several sources.

*'''[[Wikimedia Commons]]''' is a free-to-use repository of images used by Wikipedia and other sites. It's particularly easy to use Wikimedia Commmons images on a Wiki like this one, and roughly half our images come from there: you can see a list of these at [[Special:WantedFiles]] where for technical reasons they are shown <s>struck out</s>. We are also starting to add images used on this wiki to Wikimedia Commons – see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_the_LGBT_UK_History_Project.

*The other half (roughly) of our images are held on this wiki, and should all be listed in one of the sub-categories of [[:Category:Images]] (which also includes some other types of illustration, notably [[LGBT Archive:Logos|logos]]). These come from several sources:

**Some are reduced-size versions of images on Wikimedia Commons, where the original image was too big to display correctly on this wiki. There's a list of these at [[:Category:Smaller versions of Commons images]].

**Some come from '''Wikipedia''', which has a lot of images that don't quite satisfy the stringent requirements to be included in Wikimedia Commons, but in almost all cases these are perfectly safe to use on this wiki. There's a list of them at [[:Category:Images from Wikipedia]].

**Some come from sources that allow free use for non-commercial purposes only (and hence would not be eligible for Wikimedia Commons). See for instance [[:Category:Images from the National Portrait Gallery]].

**Some are photographs taken by the people who uploaded them; these are normally released under the same licence as the text of this wiki.

**Some have been downloaded from other websites, normally LGBT community sites, and the copyright and licensing situation of these may be unclear. Anyone wishing to reuse them should be aware of this – and if you believe that we have infringed your copyright for any of these please get in touch.

If you have a photograph that could illustrate one of our articles, and you either took it yourself, or can assure us that you have the copyright owner's permission, we'd very much appreciate you uploading it, or e-mailing it to one of our editors for uploading. You could also consider uploading it to [[Wikimedia Commons]] for use in other projects – but in that case please let us know you've done so. There's a list of articles that specifically need illustrating at [[LGBT Archive:Pictures wanted]] and a much longer list at [[:Category:Articles with no pictures]].

===Then and now photographs===
If you have a modern photograph of a place that also appears in a historic image, you can present the two together as a draggable '''[[Help:Before-after slider|before/after slider]]''' – readers wipe between the old and new view. Line the two shots up first with the free [https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app] (download and how-to), so the wipe lines up cleanly. See [[Help:Before-after slider]] for step-by-step instructions.

==Logos==
This wiki uses a large number of logos, mainly illustrating LGBT organisations. We have been fairly free in using these, and have not sought permission from the organisations in question, for reasons similar to those used on Wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logos). See also LGBT Archive:Copyrights.

Some of the logos we have used come from Wikimedia Commons. The larger number however have been uploaded to this Wiki (mainly downloaded from the organisation's own websites) and are listed at Category:Logos.

If you represent an organisation and feel we have used your logo inappropriately, please get in touch. And if you can supply a logo that we don' have, particularly one dating from pre-Internet days, we would be very glad to hear from you.

==See also==

[[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]

*[[Help:Before-after slider]] – show a historic photo and a modern re-shot with a draggable before/after slider

==External links==

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_in_the_United_Kingdom Wikimedia Commons: LGBT in the United kingdom

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_history_in_the_United_Kingdom Wikimedia Commons: LGBT history in the United kingdom

[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

Template:Before after

2026-07-15T07:38:19Z

LGBT-HP: Add Rephoto app link

<div class="ba-slider" style="max-width:{{{width|640}}}px;">[[File:{{{before}}}|link=|alt={{{beforelabel|Then}}}]]<span class="ba-after-wrap">[[File:{{{after}}}|link=|alt={{{afterlabel|Now}}}]]</span><span class="ba-label ba-label-before">{{{beforelabel|Then}}}</span><span class="ba-label ba-label-after">{{{afterlabel|Now}}}</span></div><div class="ba-caption">{{{caption|}}}</div><noinclude>
'''Before/after image slider.''' Drag to wipe between a historic photo and a modern re-shot. Align the pair first with the free [https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app] (download and how-to).

<pre>
{{Before after
| before = Old_photo.jpg
| after = New_photo.jpg
| caption = Optional caption
| beforelabel = Then
| afterlabel = Now
| width = 640
}}
</pre>

Both images should be the same size and crop. Full guide and a live demo: [[Help:Before-after slider]].
</noinclude>

Help:Before-after slider

2026-07-15T07:38:18Z

LGBT-HP: Add Rephoto app link (nearmark.co.uk/rephoto) + step-by-step

The '''before/after slider''' lets a reader drag between a historic photograph and a modern re-shot of the same view. It is a natural companion to '''Rephoto''': the free [https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app] lines your new photo up with the old one, then both are uploaded here and shown together with a draggable slider.

== Live example ==
{{Before after
| before = Beforeafter-demo-then.png
| after = Beforeafter-demo-now.png
| caption = Placeholder demo – drag the handle to wipe between "then" and "now". These are stand-in images until real photos are added.
}}

== How to use it ==
'''1. Align the pair.''' Use the free '''[https://nearmark.co.uk/rephoto Rephoto app]''' to line your new photograph up with the historic one – this is what makes the wipe match. That page has the download and a full explanation of how to use it.

'''2. Upload both photographs''' to the wiki. They should be the same size and crop, which is exactly what Rephoto produces.

'''3. Add the slider''' to the article:

<pre>
{{Before after
| before = Historic_photo.jpg
| after = Modern_photo.jpg
| caption = Royal Vauxhall Tavern, then and now
| beforelabel = 1985
| afterlabel = 2026
}}
</pre>

; before / after
: The two image filenames (required).
; caption
: Optional text shown beneath the slider.
; beforelabel / afterlabel
: The small corner tags (default "Then" / "Now").
; width
: Maximum display width in pixels (default 640).

See also the template: [[Template:Before after]].

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-07-15T07:10:10Z

LGBT-HP: Before/after slider: force mw-default-size image wrappers to block

/* Larger, easier-to-click form action buttons (Request account, Confirm, etc.) */
input[type="submit"],
input[type="button"],
input[type="reset"] {
font-size: 1.15em;
padding: 0.55em 1.6em;
line-height: 1.4;
cursor: pointer;
}

/* Slightly larger checkboxes and radio buttons */
input[type="checkbox"],
input[type="radio"] {
width: 1.2em;
height: 1.2em;
vertical-align: middle;
cursor: pointer;
}
/* Form fields should match the page text size (they default smaller) */
input:not([type="submit"]):not([type="button"]):not([type="reset"]):not([type="checkbox"]):not([type="radio"]),
textarea,
select,
.oo-ui-inputWidget-input {
font-size: 1em;
}
/* Roomier wikitext editor – easier to read while editing */
#wpTextbox1 {
line-height: 1.7;
padding: 14px 16px;
}
/* also covers the CodeMirror editor, if syntax highlighting is ever turned on */
.cm-editor .cm-content {
line-height: 1.7 !important;
}
/* Main Page: stack the two columns on phones/small screens */
@media screen and (max-width: 800px) {
#mp-upper,
#mp-upper > tbody,
#mp-upper > tbody > tr {
display: block !important;
width: 100% !important;
}
#mp-upper > tbody > tr > td.MainPageBG {
display: block !important;
width: 100% !important;
border: 1px solid #999 !important;
margin: 0 0 12px 0 !important;
box-sizing: border-box !important;
}
#mp-upper img { max-width: 100% !important; height: auto !important; }
}
/* Main Page "recent articles": bold title + teaser clamped to 3 lines */
.dpl-recent { list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0 0 0; padding: 0 0 0 1.3em; }
.dpl-recent li { position: relative; list-style: none; margin: 0 0 0.6em 0; }
/* Draw the bullet ourselves: the native list marker gets swallowed because each
teaser sits in a display:-webkit-box element (needed for -webkit-line-clamp). */
.dpl-recent li::before {
content: "•";
position: absolute;
left: -1em;
top: 0;
font-weight: bold;
}
/* Keep teasers text-only: an article whose intro starts with an image or a
hatnote icon (e.g. a {{disambig}} page) would otherwise float that image into
the list and break the layout. */
.dpl-recent figure,
.dpl-recent .thumb,
.dpl-recent img { display: none; }
.dpl-recent .clamp {
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-line-clamp: 3;
line-clamp: 3;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Before/after image slider (Template:Before after) */
.ba-slider { position: relative; display: block; margin: 0.6em 0; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0; user-select: none; -webkit-user-select: none; touch-action: none; cursor: ew-resize; }
.ba-slider img { display: block; width: 100%; height: auto; }
.ba-slider .mw-default-size, .ba-slider .mw-default-size > span { display: block; }
.ba-slider .ba-after-wrap { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; clip-path: inset(0 0 0 50%); -webkit-clip-path: inset(0 0 0 50%); }
.ba-slider .ba-handle { position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; left: 50%; width: 3px; margin-left: -1.5px; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 0 4px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.55 ); pointer-events: none; }
.ba-slider .ba-handle::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; width: 34px; height: 34px; transform: translate( -50%, -50% ); border-radius: 50%; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.4 ); }
.ba-slider .ba-handle::before { content: "\276E \276F"; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate( -50%, -50% ); z-index: 1; font: 13px/1 sans-serif; color: #555; letter-spacing: 2px; white-space: nowrap; }
.ba-slider .ba-label { position: absolute; top: 8px; padding: 2px 8px; font: 12px/1.4 sans-serif; color: #fff; background: rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.55 ); border-radius: 3px; pointer-events: none; }
.ba-slider .ba-label-before { left: 8px; }
.ba-slider .ba-label-after { right: 8px; }
.ba-caption { font-size: 0.85em; color: #555; margin: 0.2em 0 0.7em; line-height: 1.4; }
.ba-caption:empty { display: none; }

Help:Before-after slider

2026-07-15T07:05:03Z

LGBT-HP: Before/after slider help + demo

The '''before/after slider''' lets a reader drag between a historic photograph and a modern re-shot of the same view. It is a natural companion to the Rephoto alignment workflow: Rephoto lines the new photo up to the old one, then both are uploaded here and shown together with a draggable slider.

== Live example ==
{{Before after
| before = Beforeafter-demo-then.png
| after = Beforeafter-demo-now.png
| caption = Placeholder demo – drag the handle to wipe between "then" and "now". These are stand-in images until real photos are added.
}}

== How to use it ==
Upload both photographs (ideally a Rephoto-aligned pair – the same size and crop), then add:

<pre>
{{Before after
| before = Historic_photo.jpg
| after = Modern_photo.jpg
| caption = Royal Vauxhall Tavern, then and now
| beforelabel = 1985
| afterlabel = 2026
}}
</pre>

; before / after
: The two image filenames (required).
; caption
: Optional text shown beneath the slider.
; beforelabel / afterlabel
: The small corner tags (default "Then" / "Now").
; width
: Maximum display width in pixels (default 640).

The two images must be the same dimensions for the wipe to line up – which is exactly what Rephoto produces.

See also the template: [[Template:Before after]].

Template:Before after

2026-07-15T07:05:02Z

LGBT-HP: Before/after slider template

<div class="ba-slider" style="max-width:{{{width|640}}}px;">[[File:{{{before}}}|link=|alt={{{beforelabel|Then}}}]]<span class="ba-after-wrap">[[File:{{{after}}}|link=|alt={{{afterlabel|Now}}}]]</span><span class="ba-label ba-label-before">{{{beforelabel|Then}}}</span><span class="ba-label ba-label-after">{{{afterlabel|Now}}}</span></div><div class="ba-caption">{{{caption|}}}</div><noinclude>
'''Before/after image slider.''' Drag to wipe between a historic photo and a modern re-shot — a companion to the Rephoto alignment workflow.

<pre>
{{Before after
| before = Old_photo.jpg
| after = New_photo.jpg
| caption = Optional caption
| beforelabel = Then
| afterlabel = Now
| width = 640
}}
</pre>

Both images should be the same size and crop. Full guide and a live demo: [[Help:Before-after slider]].
</noinclude>

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-07-15T07:05:00Z

LGBT-HP: Before/after slider: styles

/* Larger, easier-to-click form action buttons (Request account, Confirm, etc.) */
input[type="submit"],
input[type="button"],
input[type="reset"] {
font-size: 1.15em;
padding: 0.55em 1.6em;
line-height: 1.4;
cursor: pointer;
}

/* Slightly larger checkboxes and radio buttons */
input[type="checkbox"],
input[type="radio"] {
width: 1.2em;
height: 1.2em;
vertical-align: middle;
cursor: pointer;
}
/* Form fields should match the page text size (they default smaller) */
input:not([type="submit"]):not([type="button"]):not([type="reset"]):not([type="checkbox"]):not([type="radio"]),
textarea,
select,
.oo-ui-inputWidget-input {
font-size: 1em;
}
/* Roomier wikitext editor – easier to read while editing */
#wpTextbox1 {
line-height: 1.7;
padding: 14px 16px;
}
/* also covers the CodeMirror editor, if syntax highlighting is ever turned on */
.cm-editor .cm-content {
line-height: 1.7 !important;
}
/* Main Page: stack the two columns on phones/small screens */
@media screen and (max-width: 800px) {
#mp-upper,
#mp-upper > tbody,
#mp-upper > tbody > tr {
display: block !important;
width: 100% !important;
}
#mp-upper > tbody > tr > td.MainPageBG {
display: block !important;
width: 100% !important;
border: 1px solid #999 !important;
margin: 0 0 12px 0 !important;
box-sizing: border-box !important;
}
#mp-upper img { max-width: 100% !important; height: auto !important; }
}
/* Main Page "recent articles": bold title + teaser clamped to 3 lines */
.dpl-recent { list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0 0 0; padding: 0 0 0 1.3em; }
.dpl-recent li { position: relative; list-style: none; margin: 0 0 0.6em 0; }
/* Draw the bullet ourselves: the native list marker gets swallowed because each
teaser sits in a display:-webkit-box element (needed for -webkit-line-clamp). */
.dpl-recent li::before {
content: "•";
position: absolute;
left: -1em;
top: 0;
font-weight: bold;
}
/* Keep teasers text-only: an article whose intro starts with an image or a
hatnote icon (e.g. a {{disambig}} page) would otherwise float that image into
the list and break the layout. */
.dpl-recent figure,
.dpl-recent .thumb,
.dpl-recent img { display: none; }
.dpl-recent .clamp {
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-line-clamp: 3;
line-clamp: 3;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Before/after image slider (Template:Before after) */
.ba-slider { position: relative; display: block; margin: 0.6em 0; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0; user-select: none; -webkit-user-select: none; touch-action: none; cursor: ew-resize; }
.ba-slider img { display: block; width: 100%; height: auto; }
.ba-slider .ba-after-wrap { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; clip-path: inset(0 0 0 50%); -webkit-clip-path: inset(0 0 0 50%); }
.ba-slider .ba-handle { position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; left: 50%; width: 3px; margin-left: -1.5px; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 0 4px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.55 ); pointer-events: none; }
.ba-slider .ba-handle::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; width: 34px; height: 34px; transform: translate( -50%, -50% ); border-radius: 50%; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.4 ); }
.ba-slider .ba-handle::before { content: "\276E \276F"; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate( -50%, -50% ); z-index: 1; font: 13px/1 sans-serif; color: #555; letter-spacing: 2px; white-space: nowrap; }
.ba-slider .ba-label { position: absolute; top: 8px; padding: 2px 8px; font: 12px/1.4 sans-serif; color: #fff; background: rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.55 ); border-radius: 3px; pointer-events: none; }
.ba-slider .ba-label-before { left: 8px; }
.ba-slider .ba-label-after { right: 8px; }
.ba-caption { font-size: 0.85em; color: #555; margin: 0.2em 0 0.7em; line-height: 1.4; }
.ba-caption:empty { display: none; }

MediaWiki:Common.js

2026-07-15T07:04:59Z

LGBT-HP: Before/after slider: JS

/* Before/after image slider — powers {{Before after}} / see [[Help:Before-after slider]] */
( function () {
function initSliders( root ) {
var sliders = ( root || document ).querySelectorAll( '.ba-slider:not(.ba-ready)' );
Array.prototype.forEach.call( sliders, function ( slider ) {
var after = slider.querySelector( '.ba-after-wrap' );
if ( !after ) {
return;
}
slider.classList.add( 'ba-ready' );
var handle = document.createElement( 'span' );
handle.className = 'ba-handle';
slider.appendChild( handle );

function setPos( p ) {
p = Math.max( 0, Math.min( 100, p ) );
var inset = 'inset(0 0 0 ' + p + '%)';
after.style.webkitClipPath = inset;
after.style.clipPath = inset;
handle.style.left = p + '%';
}
function move( e ) {
var rect = slider.getBoundingClientRect();
var clientX = e.touches ? e.touches[ 0 ].clientX : e.clientX;
setPos( ( clientX - rect.left ) / rect.width * 100 );
}

var dragging = false;
slider.addEventListener( 'mousedown', function ( e ) { dragging = true; move( e ); e.preventDefault(); } );
document.addEventListener( 'mousemove', function ( e ) { if ( dragging ) { move( e ); } } );
document.addEventListener( 'mouseup', function () { dragging = false; } );
slider.addEventListener( 'touchstart', function ( e ) { dragging = true; move( e ); }, { passive: true } );
slider.addEventListener( 'touchmove', function ( e ) { if ( dragging ) { move( e ); } }, { passive: true } );
slider.addEventListener( 'touchend', function () { dragging = false; } );

setPos( 50 );
} );
}

if ( window.mw && mw.hook ) {
mw.hook( 'wikipage.content' ).add( function ( $c ) {
initSliders( $c && $c[ 0 ] ? $c[ 0 ] : document );
} );
} else if ( document.readyState !== 'loading' ) {
initSliders( document );
} else {
document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function () { initSliders( document ); } );
}
}() );

File:Beforeafter-demo-then.png

2026-07-15T06:53:58Z

LGBT-HP: == Summary == Before/after slider demo placeholders

== Summary ==
Before/after slider demo placeholders

File:Beforeafter-demo-now.png

2026-07-15T06:53:58Z

LGBT-HP: == Summary == Before/after slider demo placeholders

== Summary ==
Before/after slider demo placeholders

Main Page

2026-07-14T13:31:11Z

LGBT-HP: Recent-articles widget: exclude disambiguation pages (notuses=Template:Disambig)

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]], arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| notuses = Template:Disambig
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 8
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''': ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Coming soon…</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We are launching our very own mobile app! It’s not a mini wikipedia. It’s a different way for people to engage with LGBT history. It will feature geofenced walking tours. Sites of interest will pop up on your phone (when the app is on) to tell you about your surroundings – or you can take one of the many guided walking tours.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-07-14T13:20:42Z

LGBT-HP: Recent-articles widget: draw bullets via ::before (native marker swallowed by -webkit-line-clamp box)

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-07-14T13:11:43Z

LGBT-HP: Recent-articles widget: hide stray intro/hatnote images (fixes disambig icon breaking layout) + restore bullet markers

User talk:LeeSargent

2026-07-14T11:18:16Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

'''Welcome to ''LGBT History Project''!'''
We hope you will contribute much and well.
You will probably want to read the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents help pages].
Again, welcome and have fun! [[User:LGBT-HP|LGBT-HP]] ([[User talk:LGBT-HP|talk]]) 11:18, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

User talk:Rachmayb

2026-07-14T09:45:08Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

User talk:Tristram

2026-07-14T09:44:44Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

Jonathan Harbourne

2026-07-14T08:11:07Z

LGBT-HP: neutralising the article to remove bias

[[File:IMG_0134.jpg|100px|thumb|right|Jonathan Harbourne]]
'''Jonathan Harbourne''' (born 1968) is a British LGBT community organiser, best known as the founder of the '''[[LGBT History Project]]''' (UK). He established the project in May 2011, and it was archived by the [[British Library]] in October 2012. In February 2019 he received a "Points of Light" award from the Prime Minister for creating it.<ref>[https://www.pointsoflight.gov.uk/uk-lgbt-archive/ "UK LGBT Archive"], Points of Light.</ref>

Harbourne worked in the gay press as art director at [[Chronos Publishing]], publisher of the ''[[Pink Paper]]'' and ''[[Boyz]]'', from 1994 to 1996, and published ''[[The Back Pocket Guide to London]]''.

He has been active in LGBT sport: he founded the charity [[Sport London]] and its [[London 2018]] project, a bid to host the [[Gay Games]] in London at the Olympic Park, and sat on the steering committee of the [[National LGBT Sports Network]] (UK). Shortly after moving to London in 1999 he founded the [[London Raiders]] softball club, and later the [[London Gay Bikers]] motorcycle group. From 2000 to 2003 he ran ''Fired up for Snow'', a campaign for a Gay Winter Games.

In the LGBT charity sector, Harbourne has volunteered since 2000 for the sexual‑health charity GMFA, facilitating HIV‑intervention workshops. He served on the committee of West End Cares (part of [[Crusaid]]), rebranded during his involvement as TheatreCares and now part of [[The Make a Difference Trust]]; was a trustee and marketing director of The London Chorus (2010–2012); chaired BNY Mellon's LGBT employee network 'PRISM'; and founded the LGBT chapter of TNON (the Network of Networks). He was a keynote speaker at HM Revenue & Customs' LGB and Trans conference in 2010.

== External links ==
* [http://www.LGBThistoryUK.org LGBT History Project]
* [http://www.london2018.info London 2018 Gay Games bid]
* [http://www.gaystarnews.com/topics/Jonathan%20Harbourne Coverage in Gay Star News]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Charity trustees]]
[[Category:1968 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]

User talk:Merlin

2026-07-14T07:58:45Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

User talk:Simonedge

2026-07-14T07:25:17Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

User talk:Test-New02

2026-07-14T07:08:14Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

User talk:Test-new-01

2026-07-13T23:57:35Z

LGBT-HP: Welcome!

Main Page

2026-07-13T23:22:15Z

LGBT-HP:

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]], arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 8
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''': ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Coming soon…</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We are launching our very own mobile app! It’s not a mini wikipedia. It’s a different way for people to engage with LGBT history. It will feature geofenced walking tours. Sites of interest will pop up on your phone (when the app is on) to tell you about your surroundings – or you can take one of the many guided walking tours.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

Main Page

2026-07-13T19:56:53Z

LGBT-HP:

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]],arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 8
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''': ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Coming soon…</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We are launching our very own mobile app! It’s not a mini wikipedia. It’s a different way for people to engage with LGBT history. It will feature geofenced walking tours. Sites of interest will pop up on your phone (when the app is on) to tell you about your surroundings – or you can take one of the many guided walking tours.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

Main Page

2026-07-13T19:55:40Z

LGBT-HP:

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]],arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 8
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''': ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Coming soon…</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We are launching our very own mobile app! It’s not a mini wikipedia. It’s a different way for people to engage in LGBT history. It will feature geofenced walking tours. Sites of interest will pop up on your phone (when the app is on) to tell you about your surroundings – or you can take one of the many guided walking tours.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

Main Page

2026-07-13T19:44:03Z

LGBT-HP:

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]],arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:inherit; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:inherit; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 8
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''': ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-07-13T19:41:46Z

LGBT-HP:

Main Page

2026-07-13T19:37:12Z

LGBT-HP:

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]],arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:inherit; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:inherit; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 7
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''': ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-07-13T19:32:36Z

LGBT-HP:

Main Page

2026-07-13T19:30:59Z

LGBT-HP: added an automatic “recent articles”

__NOTOC__
'''The UK LGBT History Project''' records the history and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the [[UK]].
It's a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the [[:Category:Newspapers and magazines | newspapers and magazines]] that come and go, TV programmes, [[:Category:Sports | sports]], lesbian, gay, bi and trans [[:Category:Businesses | businesses]],arts, [[music]] and theatre, [[:Category:Events | events]], [[:Category:Pubs and bars | pubs]] and [[:Category:Clubs | clubs]], and of course the amazing diversity of [[:Category:People|people]] who have had a part in our history.
The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as '''The UK LGBT Archive''' in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later.<ref>[http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-wiki-is-necessary-for-the-preservation-of-our-history/#gs.lSmUmxI. Jack Flanagan, "LGBT wiki is 'necessary' for the preservation of our history".] ''[[Gay Star News]]'', 5 December 2015. [http://www.webcitation.org/6dYVAKciF Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-12-05.</ref>
In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of [[LGBT History Month]].<ref>[http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/. About LGBT History Month] [http://www.webcitation.org/6cvtvkjEj Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-11-10</ref> and [[CHE]] voted to support it.<ref>[http://www.c-h-e.org.uk/campaign.shtml CHE: Campaign Priorities.] [http://www.webcitation.org/6ZWPYNm1o Archived] by WebCite® on 2015-06-24.</ref> In February 2016 [[Ross Burgess]] read [[:File:Creating an online archive for LGBT history.pdf|a paper about this site]] at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester.
By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed '''twenty million times'''. They've now exceeded 45 million.
{| id="mp-upper" style="width: 100%; margin:4px 0 0 0; background:none; border-spacing: 0px; table-layout:fixed;"

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; border-right:none; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
{| id="mp-left" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-tfa-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#D81B1B; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #D81B1B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Finding information</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet.
* browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT History]]'''; for links to some more specific timelines see [[:Category:Timelines]] – and for [[LGBT History Month]] 2016 we created a new '''[[Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy]]'''.
* browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to '''[[:Category:Main categories]]'''.
* browse by area of the country: our map on the '''[[United Kingdom]]''' page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] give links to places round the country.
* see our small list of '''[[:Category:Selected articles|Selected articles]]'''.
* take pot luck: use the '''[[Special:Random|Random page]]''' link at the left.
* search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-who-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#00796B; font-family:inherit; font-size:inherit; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #00796B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Who is writing it?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px; color:#000;" |
You could be – and we'd love you to join us.

The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet.

'''What can you write about?'''

Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here.

We also welcome first-person ''[[Articles with Vox Pop entries|Vox Pop]]'' accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost.

'''Getting started'''

To contribute, you'll need to [[Special:RequestAccount|request a free account]] – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our [[LGBT History Project:Editorial Policy|Editorial Policy]], [[LGBT History Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] and [[LGBT History Project:Photographs|Image Rights Policy]].

If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely.

Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine.

'''Editors Club'''

We run a monthly '''[[LGBT History Project:Editors Club|Editors Club]]''' – an informal one-hour online meeting on the '''third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time)''', via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved.

: '''[https://calendar.app.google/JYAnRdHDeV8cLTx97 → Add to Google Calendar]'''

'''Where to start'''

* The '''[[Articles needed]]''' page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles.
* The '''[[:Category:Stubs|Stubs]]''' category has short articles waiting to be expanded.
* If you know anything about the '''[[:File:Districts with no LGBT history.png|Districts with no LGBT history]]''' still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome.

For more about contributing, see [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]].
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-follow-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#26348B; font-family:inherit; font-size:inherit; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #26348B; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Follow us</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on:
*'''[https://x.com/LGBThistoryUK @LGBThistoryUK]''' on X
*'''[https://instagram.com/lgbthistoryuk @lgbthistoryuk]''' on Instagram
*'''[https://facebook.com/UKLGBThistory UK LGBT History Project]''' on Facebook
|}

| class="MainPageBG" style="width:50%; border:1px solid #999; background:#fafafa; vertical-align:top;"|
{| id="mp-right" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top; background:#fafafa"
|-
| style="padding:0; text-align:center;" | [[File:LGBT Archive time capsule 650.png|frameless|center|350px|alt=Time capsule with LGBT Archive logo, labelled "Arts", "Sport", "Business", "Pubs & Clubs", "Health", "Press", "People"]]
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#1565C0; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #1565C0; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some recent articles</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:Bang1977.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute)]] A few of the articles we've added recently:
{{#dpl:
| namespace =
| redirects = exclude
| notcategory = Stubs
| ordermethod = firstedit
| order = descending
| count = 7
| include = #
| mode = userformat
| listseparators = <ul class="dpl-recent">,<li><span class="clamp">'''[[%PAGE%]]''' – ,</span></li>,</ul>
}}
''For a full list of recent additions, see [[Special:NewPages|New Pages]]''.
|-
| style="padding:2px;" | <h2 id="mp-dyk-h2" style="margin:3px; background:#8E24AA; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #8E24AA; text-align:left; color:white; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Did you know?</h2>
|-
| style="padding: 8px 12px;" |
[[File:AbpEdwardWhiteBenson.jpg|thumb|100px|Edward White Benson]]
*'''[[Edward White Benson]]''' (pictured), [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian.
*'''[[Chelsea Manning]]''', American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in [[Haverfordwest]].
*The poet '''[[Lord Byron]]''' swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming.
*The '''[[Ladies of Llangollen]]''' eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives.
*Sex between men was illegal in the '''[[Isle of Man]]''' until 1992.
*The sixth-century King '''[[Maelgwn]]''' of [[Gwynedd]] in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy".
*In 1981 the '''[[London Pride]]''' march was moved to [[Huddersfield]].
*'''[[Princess Seraphina]]''' (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history.
*'''[[Roberta Cowell]]''' (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.
*'''[[Alan Turing]]''', who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note.
*'''[[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]]''' became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
*'''[[Michael Dillon]]''' won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk.
*'''[[Oscar Wilde]]''' was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895.
|}
|}

== Some other resources ==
Some sources of information about LGBT history
* [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ Gay History and Literature] by [[Rictor Norton]]
* [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/02/brief-timeline-lgbt-history-scotland-2/ A Brief Timeline of LGBT History] – Historic Environment Scotland
* [https://www.ourstoryscotland.org.uk/heritage/timeline/index.htm Timeline of OurStory] – [[OurStory Scotland]]
* [https://queerscotland.com/ Queer Scotland]
* [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx Hall-Carpenter Archives] – [[HCA]] – at the [[LSE]]
* [http://www.lagna.org.uk Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive] – [[LAGNA]] – at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]]
* [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1 Manchester LGBT Source Guide]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/ Gay and Lesbian history] at the [[National Archives]]
* [http://outhistory.org/ Outhistory (American)]
* [http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet Scarlet Collection]
* [http://queerbio.com/ QueerBio.com] (see [[QueerBio.com]])

==Copyright issues and reuse==
All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see [[LGBT Archive:Copyrights]]. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See [[LGBT Archive:Illustrations]].
''Please [mailto:Jonathan@LGBThistoryUK.org email us] if you consider we have infringed your copyright''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:LGBT Archive]]

Troll

2026-07-13T17:23:53Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Troll''' was a Saturday night at the Soundshaft, the small club behind Heaven at Charing Cross, running from 1988 to 1990. It was the defining gay acid house night of its moment in London – described by those who were there and those who have written about it since as the gay equivalent of Shoom or The Trip – and it shaped a generation of British gay DJs and clubbers. The night was promoted by '''React''' (James Horrocks, Thomas Foley, and Steven Reac..."

'''Troll''' was a Saturday night at the [[Soundshaft]], the small club behind [[Heaven]] at Charing Cross, running from 1988 to 1990. It was the defining gay acid house night of its moment in London – described by those who were there and those who have written about it since as the gay equivalent of [[Shoom]] or The Trip – and it shaped a generation of British gay DJs and clubbers.

The night was promoted by '''React''' (James Horrocks, Thomas Foley, and Steven React) and focused on New York house, Detroit techno, and the harder end of Belgian new beat – music that was reaching London from import record shops and occasional visitors from the American scene, and that the gay dancefloor understood before the mainstream had caught up. DJ writer Bill Brewster has described attending Troll as his "Damascene conversion to house music." Almost every London gay DJ who came to prominence in the 1990s is on record as having started clubbing at Troll.

Its two most important resident DJs were '''Daz Saund''' and '''Luke Slater''', both of whom built international careers from the foundation of those Saturday nights. Saund went on to become one of the most respected DJs in British house music; Slater became a central figure in techno, releasing on Mute and other significant labels through the 1990s and 2000s.

Troll was directly inspired by [[Shoom]] – Danny Rampling's foundational acid house night, which had launched in a South London gym in 1987 – and its significance in gay London was analogous: a night that arrived before the culture had a name for what it was doing, drew a crowd who understood it instinctively, and made something that couldn't be replicated once it was gone. A revival night bringing Troll and Shoom together was held around 2013–15; it was covered in the Guardian.

See also: [[Soundshaft]], [[Heaven]], [[Shoom]], [[Trade]], [[Daz Saund]], [[Luke Slater]]

[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]
[[Category:West End]]

Soundshaft

2026-07-13T17:23:34Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "The '''Soundshaft''' was a small club attached to Heaven at Charing Cross, with its own entrance on Hungerford Lane behind Craven Street, though it could also be reached directly from Heaven's main space. While Heaven operated as London's largest and most famous gay club through the 1980s and 1990s, the Soundshaft ran as an intimate sister venue where some of the most significant nights in British gay dance culture took place. Its most celebrated tenant was [[Troll]..."

The '''Soundshaft''' was a small club attached to [[Heaven]] at Charing Cross, with its own entrance on Hungerford Lane behind Craven Street, though it could also be reached directly from Heaven's main space. While Heaven operated as London's largest and most famous gay club through the 1980s and 1990s, the Soundshaft ran as an intimate sister venue where some of the most significant nights in British gay dance culture took place.

Its most celebrated tenant was [[Troll]], the Saturday acid house night that ran from 1988 to 1990 and launched the careers of DJs Daz Saund and Luke Slater. Paul Oakenfold ran '''Future''' at the Soundshaft on Thursdays, one of the first London nights to champion Balearic and house sounds; at the end of those evenings, the doors connecting the Soundshaft to Heaven's main room were opened and the two crowds merged for the final songs – one of the rituals of that era and a model for how the underground and the mainstream gay scene could briefly become the same thing.

Later nights at the Soundshaft included '''Sherbet''' and '''Fahrenheit''', a hard house night run by Fevah that operated in the late 1990s and early 2000s, by which time the music policy of the Soundshaft had moved considerably further from the Balearic warmth of its origins.

The Soundshaft is now '''The Stage Bar'''.

See also: [[Heaven]], [[Troll]], [[Trade]], [[DTPM]]

[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]
[[Category:West End]]

Tony De Vit

2026-07-13T17:22:44Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Tony De Vit''' (1957–1998) was a British DJ and record producer who became the defining resident of Trade at Turnmills in Farringdon and is widely regarded as the founding figure of hard house – the relentless, accelerating sound he helped create and that he drove to its peak at the dawn end of Trade's Sunday sessions. He is known in British club culture as '''the Godfather of Hard House'''. He has a blue plaque at the Custard Factory in Birmingham – the fir..."

'''Tony De Vit''' (1957–1998) was a British DJ and record producer who became the defining resident of [[Trade]] at Turnmills in Farringdon and is widely regarded as the founding figure of hard house – the relentless, accelerating sound he helped create and that he drove to its peak at the dawn end of Trade's Sunday sessions. He is known in British club culture as '''the Godfather of Hard House'''. He has a blue plaque at the Custard Factory in Birmingham – the first ever awarded to a DJ.

De Vit was born in Kidderminster in the West Midlands and began DJing in the late 1970s, playing at weddings and working men's clubs before finding his way to the gay venues of the Midlands, most notably Birmingham's Nightingale. He arrived at [[Heaven]] in London in 1988 as a resident, just as house music was reshaping what a gay club could sound like. When [[Trade]] opened in November 1990, De Vit was among its earliest residents, and the relationship between the DJ and the club became one of the most celebrated in British club history.

His sets at Trade in the small hours of Sunday mornings – as the crowd that had been there since 3am entered its final phase and dawn began to show through whatever gaps the blackout didn't cover – became legendary. The music moved faster and harder as the night progressed, and De Vit moved with it. Witnesses described his mixing as transcendent: walls of sound, relentless momentum, a dancefloor that had nowhere left to go except further in. His 1995 Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 won Listener's Choice. That same year he played a twelve-hour set at Trade.

In 1992 he co-founded '''V2 Recording Studio''' at the Custard Factory in Birmingham with Simon Parkes, which became the production base for over 100 tracks and eleven UK chart hits between 1994 and 1998. His 1995 single '''Burning Up''' reached number 24 in the UK charts. He released on React, Serious, and other labels central to the British hard house scene.

De Vit was privately gay throughout his career and kept his personal life largely separate from his public profile. He was diagnosed HIV positive nine months before his death. He died in July 1998, aged 40, in Birmingham, with his partner '''Andi Buckley''' at his side. The grief in the Trade community was acute. His death came during the height of the AIDS crisis, in the context of [[Section 28]] and a culture in which gay men's deaths were still treated as peripheral by the mainstream press. Inside the community that had danced to him for eight years, it was anything but.

His mentorship legacy was substantial. He discovered '''Robert Ferguson''' – later known as Fergie, the Scottish DJ who became a Radio 1 resident and global figure – as a troubled teenager from Larne, Northern Ireland, and guided him into professional DJing. The '''TDV Academy''', established in his memory, provides free DJ training to young people.

A documentary about De Vit was released in 2023. A compilation of his work, remixed by contemporary producers, was also released that year.

See also: [[Trade]], [[Heaven]], [[Hard House]], [[Turnmills]]

[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]

Shoom

2026-07-13T17:20:13Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Shoom''' was a London acid house club night founded by '''Danny Rampling''' in September 1987, widely credited with launching the British acid house movement and the Second Summer of Love. It was not a gay club, but its origins, its culture, and its influence are inseparable from the history of gay nightlife in London. Rampling had returned from Ibiza in the summer of 1987, where he, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, and Johnny Walker had heard DJ Alfredo playing at Am..."

'''Shoom''' was a London acid house club night founded by '''Danny Rampling''' in September 1987, widely credited with launching the British acid house movement and the Second Summer of Love. It was not a gay club, but its origins, its culture, and its influence are inseparable from the history of gay nightlife in London.

Rampling had returned from Ibiza in the summer of 1987, where he, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, and Johnny Walker had heard DJ Alfredo playing at Amnesia and experienced something that bore no resemblance to what London's clubs were doing. Shoom was the attempt to recreate it. The first party was held at a 300-capacity basement gym at 56–58 Crown House on Southwark Street, South London. Rampling's wife Jenni managed the door. The music was Chicago house, Balearic beat, and the emerging Detroit techno sound, mixed with a warmth and fluidity that hard rave would later lose.

Shoom moved venues as it grew – to a YMCA basement on Tottenham Court Road, then to The Park in Kensington, then to Busby's on Charing Cross Road – but its original crowd of perhaps 300 people, who had experienced the first parties before anyone knew what acid house was, remained its defining constituency. The strawberry-scented smoke machine, the smiley-face logo, and the all-enveloping physical experience of the music at Shoom are a fixed point in British cultural history. Primal Scream's ''Screamadelica'' is one document of what those nights felt like.

Shoom's connection to gay culture ran through the personnel and the dancefloor rather than its identity. Danny Rampling himself was straight, but the world he drew on – Ibiza, house music, the Paradise Garage lineage – was a world built by gay black American musicians and DJs, and the London gay circuit absorbed Shoom's influence immediately. [[Troll]], the gay acid house night at the [[Soundshaft]] behind [[Heaven]], was directly inspired by Shoom and opened in 1988 as its queer counterpart.

Shoom closed around 1990. Billboard magazine ranked it seventh among the greatest dance clubs of all time in 2005. A 30th anniversary event was held in 2017–18. A combined Shoom and Troll revival night took place around 2013–15; coverage appeared in the Guardian.

See also: [[Troll]], [[Soundshaft]], [[Heaven]], [[Trade]]

[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]

Talk:Trade (nightclub)

2026-07-13T17:19:00Z

LGBT-HP: LGBT-HP moved page Talk:Trade (nightclub) to Talk:Trade

#REDIRECT [[Talk:Trade]]

Talk:Trade

2026-07-13T17:19:00Z

LGBT-HP: LGBT-HP moved page Talk:Trade (nightclub) to Talk:Trade

Add references from the Wikipedia article.

Trade (nightclub)

2026-07-13T17:19:00Z

LGBT-HP: LGBT-HP moved page Trade (nightclub) to Trade

#REDIRECT [[Trade]]

Trade

2026-07-13T17:19:00Z

LGBT-HP: LGBT-HP moved page Trade (nightclub) to Trade

'''Trade''' was a London after-hours club night that ran at Turnmills in Farringdon from November 1990 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest gay club nights in the world. Its founder and promoter was [[Laurence Malice]]. Its name came from Polari – the argot of queer London – in which "trade" referred to a casual sexual partner. The choice was deliberate: unashamed, knowing, and immediately legible to anyone who needed to know.

Malice had come to the idea through earlier nights including Pyramid, a mixed gay club at [[Heaven]], where he had seen what happened when experimental music met a queer dancefloor. Trade formalised that instinct. Turnmills' owner John Newman held a 24-hour licence from Islington Council – one of the few in London – which allowed Trade to open legally at 3am on Sunday nights, when everywhere else was closed. It was the first legal gay after-hours club in the United Kingdom.

The main room was described by regulars as '''Dante's Inferno''' – packed, dark, physically overwhelming. People danced on every surface. The sound system was bespoke. The music policy was harder than almost anything else happening in London: house, techno, and what became known as hard house, a genre that Trade's residencies in part created. '''Tony De Vit''' (1957–1998) was its defining DJ resident – a Midlands-born selector whose sets at Trade made him internationally famous and whose death at 41 from drug-related heart failure remains one of the most mourned losses in British club culture. Other residents included Malcolm Duffy, '''Smokin Jo''', The Sharp Boys, Ian M, Steve Thomas, Alan Thompson, Pete Wardman, and Daz Saund. '''Miquel Pellitero''' observed that Trade "encouraged many DJs and producers to create specific tracks" and "kick-started a new global dance genre."

Trade provided something rarer than music: genuine safety. In the 1990s, openly gay men moving through London at 4am were not safe. Inside Turnmills they were. The crowd included gay men, lesbians, straight women, and a scattering of curious others, all absorbed into the same relentless dancefloor logic. Regulars used the phrase '''Trade Babies''' in at least two ways: as a term for first-timers brought through the door by a regular, and as a description of the children subsequently born to couples who met there. Both usages speak to the same thing – the depth of community the club created. Devotion to Trade extended to the permanent: a significant number of regulars had the Trade logo tattooed on their bodies. The Trade Babies Facebook group, launched in 2009, has over 2,000 members.

A second room – '''Trade Lite''' – offered funkier, more vocal-oriented music for those who needed to come up for air.

Trade closed at Turnmills in October 2002. Laurence Malice subsequently opened Egg nightclub in King's Cross. Trade's 25-year anniversary was celebrated at Egg. [[DTPM]] resident DJs Smokin Jo and Alan Thompson were also Trade residents, the same circuit of talent serving the two most musically serious gay nights in the city.

See also: [[Turnmills]], [[Heaven]], [[DTPM]], [[Soundshaft]], [[Tony De Vit]]

[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]
[[Category:Farringdon]]

Laurence Malice

2026-07-13T17:18:18Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Laurence Malice''' is a London club promoter, best known as the founder of Trade, the after-hours gay club at Turnmills in Farringdon that ran from 1990 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest club nights in the world. Malice came to Trade through an earlier career in London nightlife that placed him at the centre of gay club culture in the 1980s. He co-created '''Pyramid''', a mixed gay night at Heaven, and was involved with the Thursday night '''Asylu..."

'''Laurence Malice''' is a London club promoter, best known as the founder of [[Trade]], the after-hours gay club at Turnmills in Farringdon that ran from 1990 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest club nights in the world.

Malice came to Trade through an earlier career in London nightlife that placed him at the centre of gay club culture in the 1980s. He co-created '''Pyramid''', a mixed gay night at [[Heaven]], and was involved with the Thursday night '''Asylum''' sessions there – events that were among the first in London to take house music seriously as a gay dancefloor proposition. By the late 1980s, as acid house transformed British nightlife, Malice was already thinking about what came after.

Trade opened in November 1990 at Turnmills on Clerkenwell Road, with a 3am start time made possible by the 24-hour licence held by Turnmills' owner '''John Newman''' – one of the very few such licences in London. The concept was straightforward and radical: a legal, safe, after-hours space where gay men, and anyone else with the right attitude, could dance until morning. Malice described it as a reaction to the danger of being visibly gay in London at night. "Much safer" in daylight, he said, was the logic. The dancefloor that resulted was anything but safe in any other sense.

His philosophy of radical inclusivity – "bankers dancing next to pop stars," people of any background and sexuality absorbed into the same music – distinguished Trade from a narrower gay venue identity. It was always queer-centred without being exclusionary, and that combination proved to be its particular power. The word "Trade" itself was Malice's choice: Polari for a casual sexual encounter, immediately understood by those who needed to understand it and opaque to everyone else.

Trade ran for twenty-five years in total, across Turnmills, [[Ministry of Sound]], and other venues, before its final closing party at '''Egg London''' in October 2015. Egg, in King's Cross, is also Malice's club, founded around 2003. He has spoken of daytime clubbing as his preferred mode – more honest about what the body needs, he has suggested, than the conventions of the night.

See also: [[Trade]], [[Tony De Vit]], [[Heaven]], [[Turnmills]], [[Egg London]]

[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]

Trade

2026-07-13T17:18:03Z

LGBT-HP:

Trade

2026-07-13T17:16:58Z

LGBT-HP: rich rewrite

'''Trade''' was a London after-hours club night that ran at Turnmills in Farringdon from November 1990 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest gay club nights in the world. Its founder and promoter was '''Laurence Malice'''. Its name came from Polari – the argot of queer London – in which "trade" referred to a casual sexual partner. The choice was deliberate: unashamed, knowing, and immediately legible to anyone who needed to know.

Malice had come to the idea through earlier nights including Pyramid, a mixed gay club at [[Heaven]], where he had seen what happened when experimental music met a queer dancefloor. Trade formalised that instinct. Turnmills' owner John Newman held a 24-hour licence from Islington Council – one of the few in London – which allowed Trade to open legally at 3am on Sunday nights, when everywhere else was closed. It was the first legal gay after-hours club in the United Kingdom.

The main room was described by regulars as '''Dante's Inferno''' – packed, dark, physically overwhelming. People danced on every surface. The sound system was bespoke. The music policy was harder than almost anything else happening in London: house, techno, and what became known as hard house, a genre that Trade's residencies in part created. '''Tony De Vit''' (1957–1998) was its defining DJ resident – a Midlands-born selector whose sets at Trade made him internationally famous and whose death at 41 from drug-related heart failure remains one of the most mourned losses in British club culture. Other residents included Malcolm Duffy, '''Smokin Jo''', The Sharp Boys, Ian M, Steve Thomas, Alan Thompson, Pete Wardman, and Daz Saund. '''Miquel Pellitero''' observed that Trade "encouraged many DJs and producers to create specific tracks" and "kick-started a new global dance genre."

Trade provided something rarer than music: genuine safety. In the 1990s, openly gay men moving through London at 4am were not safe. Inside Turnmills they were. The crowd included gay men, lesbians, straight women, and a scattering of curious others, all absorbed into the same relentless dancefloor logic. Regulars used the phrase '''Trade Babies''' in at least two ways: as a term for first-timers brought through the door by a regular, and as a description of the children subsequently born to couples who met there. Both usages speak to the same thing – the depth of community the club created. Devotion to Trade extended to the permanent: a significant number of regulars had the Trade logo tattooed on their bodies. The Trade Babies Facebook group, launched in 2009, has over 2,000 members.

A second room – '''Trade Lite''' – offered funkier, more vocal-oriented music for those who needed to come up for air.

Trade closed at Turnmills in October 2002. Laurence Malice subsequently opened Egg nightclub in King's Cross. Trade's 25-year anniversary was celebrated at Egg. [[DTPM]] resident DJs Smokin Jo and Alan Thompson were also Trade residents, the same circuit of talent serving the two most musically serious gay nights in the city.

See also: [[Turnmills]], [[Heaven]], [[DTPM]], [[Soundshaft]], [[Tony De Vit]]

[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Nightlife]]
[[Category:Farringdon]]

Jack Saul

2026-07-13T17:08:39Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Jack Saul''' (c.1857–c.1904) was an Irish-born male sex worker who became the most celebrated and documented figure in the Victorian trade of male prostitution in London. His name appears in two of the defining scandals of late nineteenth-century queer London – the Cleveland Street scandal of 1889 and the Dublin Castle affair – and he is the attributed author of ''The Sins of the Cities of the Plain'' (1881), one of the earliest and most important documents..."

'''Jack Saul''' (c.1857–c.1904) was an Irish-born male sex worker who became the most celebrated and documented figure in the Victorian trade of male prostitution in London. His name appears in two of the defining scandals of late nineteenth-century queer London – the [[Cleveland Street scandal]] of 1889 and the Dublin Castle affair – and he is the attributed author of ''The Sins of the Cities of the Plain'' (1881), one of the earliest and most important documents of gay life in Victorian England.

Saul was born in Dublin and had arrived in London by his early twenties, working the streets, bars, and venues of the West End. The [[London Pavilion]] on [[Piccadilly Circus]], whose balcony promenade was one of the most active meeting places for men seeking men in Victorian London, was among his regular haunts.

''The Sins of the Cities of the Plain, or the Recollections of a Mary-Ann'' was published in 1881, purportedly as Saul's own memoir dictated to the fictional narrator "Mr Cambon." Whether the text is genuinely autobiographical or largely invented by its publisher is disputed, but it describes in explicit and historically specific detail the world of male sex work in 1870s–80s London – the venues, the clients, the prices, the argot, and the social geography of queer Victorian life. It is one of a tiny number of first-person accounts from inside that world, and for that reason alone it is an irreplaceable source.

In 1889 Saul was called as a witness in proceedings related to the Cleveland Street Scandal, in which a male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street was discovered to have employed telegraph boys from the Post Office. The scandal implicated a number of aristocrats and raised questions – never fully resolved – about the involvement of Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence. Saul testified frankly about his own activities and those of others, apparently without legal consequence to himself – a pragmatic tolerance that speaks to his usefulness as a witness and the selective nature of Victorian prosecution.

He appears in the historical record intermittently after 1889 and died around 1904.

See also: [[Cleveland Street scandal]], [[London Pavilion]], [[Piccadilly Circus]]

[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Victorian London]]

Trocadero

2026-07-13T17:07:19Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "The '''Trocadero''' at Piccadilly Circus has occupied the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street since the 1880s, operating successively as a music hall annexe, a grand Edwardian restaurant, a tourist entertainment complex, and a nightlife venue. Its LGBT history runs from the Victorian promenade era through to the final years of DTPM in the 2000s. The original Trocadero Restaurant opened in 1896, built on the site of the former Argyll Rooms. It was a..."

The '''Trocadero''' at [[Piccadilly Circus]] has occupied the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street since the 1880s, operating successively as a music hall annexe, a grand Edwardian restaurant, a tourist entertainment complex, and a nightlife venue. Its LGBT history runs from the Victorian promenade era through to the final years of [[DTPM]] in the 2000s.

The original Trocadero Restaurant opened in 1896, built on the site of the former Argyll Rooms. It was a large, fashionable dining establishment that formed part of the social geography of Piccadilly – alongside the [[Criterion Restaurant]] to the south, the [[London Pavilion]] to the northeast, and the [[Lilypond]] further along Coventry Street – that gay men navigated as a connected circuit from at least the early twentieth century.

The Trocadero was referenced in Matt Houlbrook's ''Queer London'' (2005) as one of the venues in this circuit during the 1950s, when [[Piccadilly Circus]] became the centre of queer commercial sociability in the West End. Its proximity to the [[Dilly]] – the gathering place for Dilly boys at the Shaftesbury Memorial fountain – made it part of a landscape that required no map for those who needed it.

The restaurant closed and the building was redeveloped in the 1980s as an entertainment complex, housing Segaworld and other tourist attractions. In its later incarnation it became a nightlife venue, and served as the final home of [[DTPM]], one of London's most celebrated Sunday club nights.

See also: [[Piccadilly Circus]], [[DTPM]], [[Criterion Restaurant]], [[London Pavilion]], [[Lilypond]]

[[Category:West End]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Venues]]

DTPM

2026-07-13T17:06:40Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''DTPM''' ('''Demens Trelirium Post Meridien''') was a London club night founded in 1993 by promoter '''Lee Freeman''', running every Sunday and widely regarded as one of the finest gay and polysexual nights the city has produced. The name – mock-Latin for something like "afternoon madness" – reflected its identity as a Sunday tea dance for serious clubbers, many of them arriving directly from Trade, the legendary after-hours night at Turnmills. DTPM billed itse..."

'''DTPM''' ('''Demens Trelirium Post Meridien''') was a London club night founded in 1993 by promoter '''Lee Freeman''', running every Sunday and widely regarded as one of the finest gay and polysexual nights the city has produced. The name – mock-Latin for something like "afternoon madness" – reflected its identity as a Sunday tea dance for serious clubbers, many of them arriving directly from [[Trade]], the legendary after-hours night at Turnmills. DTPM billed itself as "polysexual, not gay or straight," and its crowd reflected that: diverse, fashion-conscious, and there for the music.

The night launched in April 1993 at '''Villa Stefano''' in Holborn, a basement bar-restaurant next to Holborn tube that functioned as a restaurant on weekdays and a club on Sundays. It moved to '''Bar Rumba''' in May 1994 and '''The End''' in January 1995, before settling at '''Fabric''' on Charterhouse Street from 1999, where it ran for eight years. Its final home was the [[Trocadero]] on [[Piccadilly Circus]].

The resident DJs included '''Smokin Jo''', '''Alan Thompson''', '''Steve Thomas''', '''Miquel Pellitero''', '''Mark Westhenry''', and '''Oliver Mohns'''. The music policy – deep and funky, progressing deliberately through the afternoon and into the evening – was central to DTPM's identity at a time when much of London's gay scene was not known for musical seriousness.

At its peak DTPM attracted celebrities alongside its loyal regular crowd, and its Sunday sessions became a defining social institution of late 1990s and early 2000s queer London. The description of Sunday afternoon at Villa Stefano in its early days – "the after-hours haunt of the most extreme and flamboyant members of the London gay scene, arriving Sunday lunchtime very much the worse for wear" – gives some sense of the atmosphere it maintained across its venues and its decade-plus run.

See also: [[Trade]], [[Fabric]], [[Trocadero]], [[Piccadilly Circus]]

[[Category:Nightlife]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:West End]]

Colin MacInnes

2026-07-13T16:58:36Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Colin MacInnes''' (1914–1976) was a British novelist best known for his London trilogy – ''City of Spades'' (1957), ''Absolute Beginners'' (1959), and ''Mr Love and Justice'' (1960) – which captured the underworld, youth culture, and racial complexity of post-war London with a directness that contemporary literary fiction largely avoided. MacInnes was born in London but spent much of his childhood in Australia, returning to England in his twenties. He was a gra..."

'''Colin MacInnes''' (1914–1976) was a British novelist best known for his London trilogy – ''City of Spades'' (1957), ''Absolute Beginners'' (1959), and ''Mr Love and Justice'' (1960) – which captured the underworld, youth culture, and racial complexity of post-war London with a directness that contemporary literary fiction largely avoided.

MacInnes was born in London but spent much of his childhood in Australia, returning to England in his twenties. He was a grandson of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and a son of the novelist Angela Thirkell, family connections he wore lightly and discussed rarely. He was bisexual – his relationships with men, particularly young Black men in the Notting Hill and Soho scenes, are documented in his biography and reflected obliquely in his fiction.

''Absolute Beginners'', set in Soho and Notting Hill during the summer of the 1958 race riots, is his most celebrated novel. Its narrator moves through a world of jazz clubs, coffee bars, sex workers, and queer men with an unsentimental ease that made the book feel radical at the time and still readable today. The Dilly and the streets around [[Piccadilly Circus]] are present in his non-fiction essays as a world he knew well from the inside. His collected essays, ''England, Half English'' (1961), remain vivid portraits of a country trying to understand what it was becoming.

MacInnes died in 1976. ''Absolute Beginners'' was filmed in 1986, to mixed reviews. His reputation has fluctuated – he is neither as celebrated as he was in his lifetime nor as forgotten as he has sometimes been claimed to be. As a bisexual writer who documented the gay and Black worlds of 1950s London without prurience or condescension, his place in LGBT literary history is well established.

[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:People]]

J.R. Ackerley

2026-07-13T16:57:54Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Joseph Randolph Ackerley''' (1896–1967), known as '''J.R. Ackerley''', was a British author, memoirist, and literary editor whose posthumously published memoir ''My Father and Myself'' (1968) is one of the most candid and affecting accounts of a gay life in twentieth-century England. Ackerley was born in Herne Hill, London. His father, Arthur Ackerley, was a prosperous fruit merchant who – as Ackerley discovered only after his father's death – had maintained a..."

'''Joseph Randolph Ackerley''' (1896–1967), known as '''J.R. Ackerley''', was a British author, memoirist, and literary editor whose posthumously published memoir ''My Father and Myself'' (1968) is one of the most candid and affecting accounts of a gay life in twentieth-century England.

Ackerley was born in Herne Hill, London. His father, Arthur Ackerley, was a prosperous fruit merchant who – as Ackerley discovered only after his father's death – had maintained a second secret family for decades, fathering three children with a woman in Barnes while remaining married to Ackerley's mother. The revelation shook Ackerley and became the central subject of his memoir, which weaves together an account of his father's double life with an equally frank account of his own: the pursuit of what he called "the ideal friend," an unattainable young working-class man, through the bars, streets, and parks of London across several decades.

He served in the First World War and was captured by the Germans, an experience that generated his first book, ''The Prisoners of War'' (1925), a play with a thinly veiled homosexual subtext. His travel memoir ''Hindoo Holiday'' (1932) documented his time as private secretary to the Maharajah of Chhatarpur and became a minor classic of wry observation. He was literary editor of the BBC's ''The Listener'' from 1935 to 1959, during which time he published early work by W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, and others, and maintained a close friendship with E.M. Forster.

His novel ''We Think the World of You'' (1960) won the W.H. Smith Literary Award. His book ''My Dog Tulip'' (1956), about his German Shepherd Queenie, became a cult text – adapted as an animated film in 2009 – and is considered one of the finest books ever written about a dog.

''My Father and Myself'' was published the year after his death, in 1968 – the same year that homosexuality between men over 21 was decriminalised in England and Wales. It remains in print.

[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:People]]

London Pavilion

2026-07-13T16:54:24Z

LGBT-HP:

The '''London Pavilion''' at 1 Piccadilly Circus was rebuilt in its current form in 1885 as one of London's largest and most fashionable Victorian music halls. For anyone who knew where to look, it was also one of the most reliable meeting places for men seeking other men in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The building's upper tier contained a promenade – a wide gallery circling the auditorium – that became notorious for the mix of sex workers, gay men, and opportunists who used it as a meeting place. The management was aware of the trade and pragmatic about it. A 1916 newspaper account described "painted and perfumed travesties" visible on the promenade to any audience member who looked upward. Jack Saul, the most celebrated male sex worker of the Victorian era and a central witness in the [[Cleveland Street scandal]] of 1889, was a regular at the Pavilion.

The London Pavilion closed as a music hall in 1934, becoming a cinema before being absorbed into the Trocadero entertainment complex in 1984. Today the ground floor houses Ripley's Believe It or Not. The building's stone façade – which looked out across [[Piccadilly Circus]] at the [[Dilly]] boys for half a century – is largely unchanged.

See also: [[Piccadilly Circus]], [[Jack Saul]], [[Cleveland Street scandal]], [[Trocadero]]

[[Category:West End]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Venues]]

London Pavilion

2026-07-13T16:53:49Z

LGBT-HP: Created page with "The '''London Pavilion''' at 1 Piccadilly Circus was rebuilt in its current form in 1885 as one of London's largest and most fashionable Victorian music halls. For anyone who knew where to look, it was also one of the most reliable meeting places for men seeking other men in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The building's upper tier contained a promenade – a wide gallery circling the auditorium – that became notorious for the mix of sex workers, gay..."

The '''London Pavilion''' at 1 Piccadilly Circus was rebuilt in its current form in 1885 as one of London's largest and most fashionable Victorian music halls. For anyone who knew where to look, it was also one of the most reliable meeting places for men seeking other men in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The building's upper tier contained a promenade – a wide gallery circling the auditorium – that became notorious for the mix of sex workers, gay men, and opportunists who used it as a meeting place. The management was aware of the trade and pragmatic about it. A 1916 newspaper account described "painted and perfumed travesties" visible on the promenade to any audience member who looked upward. Jack Saul, the most celebrated male sex worker of the Victorian era and a central witness in the [[Cleveland Street Scandal]] of 1889, was a regular at the Pavilion.

The London Pavilion closed as a music hall in 1934, becoming a cinema before being absorbed into the Trocadero entertainment complex in 1984. Today the ground floor houses Ripley's Believe It or Not. The building's stone façade – which looked out across [[Piccadilly Circus]] at the [[Dilly]] boys for half a century – is largely unchanged.

See also: [[Piccadilly Circus]], [[Jack Saul]], [[Cleveland Street Scandal]], [[Trocadero]]

[[Category:West End]]
[[Category:Gay history]]
[[Category:Venues]]