Biograph

From LGBT Archive
Revision as of 21:14, 19 March 2012 by LGBT-HP (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

The Biograph Cinema was a 24 hour rolling news cinema in Victoria, London. It became very popular during the second World War. In the 1960s it was one of London's gay landmarks and renamed the Biogrope. The Metropolitan Police's increase surveillance of public lavatories drove men looking to 'pick up' into the comfort and darkness of the cinema. Men would often change seats to sit next to a young man.

Kenneth Williams visiting in 1952 said "in the hope of traditional entertainment" complained bitterly, after finding it "terribly desolate".

it was demolished in 1983.

References

Queer London – Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 Matt Houlbrook, The University of Chicago Press, 2005.