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January 24, 2023

Queer Britain: the UK’s First LGBTQ+ Museum

In May 2021, Queer Britain, the UK’s first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer) history and culture, opened in the King’s Cross area of London. Located at 2 Granary Square, it joins destinations including Berlin, San Francisco, and Fort Lauderdale in having a permanent queer museum space.

And it’s not before time: same-sex marriages were celebrated here from 2014, gay computer scientist Alan Turing features on our £50 note, and many museums and attractions in London have LGBTQ+ themed events, trails, and exhibits. Indeed, research shows that London is the leading city in Europe for LGBTQ+ tourism, while the census of 2021 showed that some boroughs of the city (Lambeth, Southwark, City) have an LGB+ residential population higher than 8%, compared to an average of 3% across England and Wales.

NOTE:  The word ‘queer,’ once a homophobic term, has a rich recent history of being used positively, particularly for younger generations, as an umbrella term to refer to non-straight and non-gender-conforming identities.

Entrance to the Queer Britain museum in London. Photo Credit: © Ric Morris.

Exhibition: We Are Queer Britain

Located in a renovated Victorian industrial building, the King’s Cross space is dedicated to temporary exhibitions on LGBTQ+ themes. I visited during the inaugural exhibition We Are Queer Britain (until April 2023), marking the 50th anniversary of London’s first Pride march, which reflects on a century of activism, art, culture, and social history.

Sexual relations between men were illegal in England and Wales until 1967 (until 2000 in the armed forces), and probably the most famous person to be imprisoned for their sexuality was Oscar Wilde, author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. His cell door from Reading Gaol is on display here alongside a copy of his heartfelt testimony, which he wrote behind that door, De Profundis.

Exhibition room in Queer Britain museum in London. Photo Credit: © Ric Morris.

While lesbian relationships have never been illegal in this country, they have often been ignored or forgotten, and this is why queer history is so important – it reclaims stories previously left out. Often we get a glimpse into people’s lives through their diaries, such as the writer Virginia Woolf, whose bust is on display here, and 19th century Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister, whose coded diary has been called ‘the Rosetta Stone of lesbian history.’

An exciting discovery of recent years is the diary of Mr. Lucas (1926-2014) – civil servant by day and chronicler of London’s gay underworld by night. You can see a page from his diary here, and we eagerly await their full publication. Another moving document is from Switchboard, an LGBTQ+ telephone helpline founded in London in 1974 – a vital lifeline when information and support was hard to come by – and each phone call was documented in their log books, which today provide a rich insight into the issues faced by queer people from the 1970s to the 1990s, and subject of an award-winning podcast The Log Books .

Rainbow cape worn by singer Olly Alexander. Photo Credit: © Ric Morris.

Also on display is a cabinet from the Museum of Transology, the UK’s most significant collection of objects representing trans, non-binary and intersex people’s lives, who have often been sidelined even within queer history. There are fashion items too – Pride outfits worn by members of LGBTQ+ Muslim organisation Imaan, a dress worn by the ‘Godzilla of drag queens’ Divine during their UK tour, and the rainbow cape worn by singer Olly Alexander for his Glastonbury Festival set.

As the exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of London’s first Gay Pride march (as it was called then) in 1972, there are photos and memories of early prides. For many people attending, their first pride was the first time they were ‘out’ in public and their first encounter of the size and strength of the community. The first pride commemorated the 1969 riots outside the Stonewall Inn in New York when LGBTQ+ people resisted a police raid. For this reason, the name Stonewall was chosen for the UK’s most influential LGBTQ+ charity, formed in 1989 by leading activists, including actor Ian McKellen (Gandalf in Lord of the Rings). Stonewall successfully campaigned to remove anti-LGBTQ+ laws, equalise the age of consent and introduce legal same-sex partnerships. On display is the founding document of Stonewall, signed in Ian McKellen’s kitchen.

Queer Britain packs a lot into a compact space. You can read books in the small library, curated by Gay’s The Word, Britain’s oldest LGBTQ+ bookshop based in nearby Bloomsbury. You can buy many of these books in the museum shop, along with greeting cards, mugs, and items created by selected community artists. And if you can’t make it to the museum, they have the beginnings of a digital archive on their website – you can rotate and zoom a 3-D scan of Oscar Wilde’s prison cell door.

The shop at Queer Britain museum in London. Photo Credit: © Ric Morris.

Filling in the gaps

So, why do we need a queer museum? Quite simply, it fills in the gaps. In the past (and in much of the world, in the present), people whose sexuality or gender identity differed from the norm were ignored, misunderstood, or punished. Many people protected themselves by keeping themselves off the record. On top of that, archivists and historians have overlooked, explained away (‘they were… friends’), and destroyed evidence of non-conforming lives. For instance, when bisexual poet Lord Byron died, his friends immediately rushed to his publishers in Mayfair and burned his memoirs. Who knows how many queer memories went the same way?

But far more than enriching the historical record, a queer museum helps people today understand and explore their place in the world. Many LGBTQ+ people remember a time when they were not represented in ‘respectable’ culture when there were no positive models of who they could be, when they had to figure out life on their own. Sue Sanders, the founder of LGBT+ History Month, says, ‘the difference it would have made to me as young person to know that Virginia Woolf was bisexual, to know about Oscar Wilde, would have made a phenomenal difference to my life.’ The role of community museums, we are reminded, is more than to archive dusty old relics: they have the power to crystallise shared human experiences.

People relaxing next to the Regent’s Canal, outside Queer Britain. Photo Credit: © Ric Morris.

King’s Cross: London’s new public space

Another reason to visit Queer Britain is to explore the recently-redeveloped King’s Cross area – a five-minute walk north of the famous station (and its neighbour St Pancras International). In the 19th century, this was a railway, canal, and road interchange where goods from northern England were unloaded to power and feed the capital. In the 21st century, these once-derelict railway lands have been repurposed to create a vibrant area for shopping, eating, drinking, studying, and working. Queer Britain neighbours include the world-famous art college Central St Martins and the landmark new Google building (with a 300 metre-long roof garden) designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the multi-talented creator of the 2012 Olympic cauldron and the latest model of the red London bus.

IFO (Identified Flying Object) by Jaques Rival at King's Cross Station in London. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.

Explore further

If you want to find out more about the heritage and regeneration of the King’s Cross area around the Queer Britain museum, you can go on a London Architecture Tour – Modern and Contemporary .

If you want to explore London’s rich and varied LGBTQ+ life, the first stop would be Soho, with its bars, restaurants, and heaps of cultural heritage. For history, the nearby district of Bloomsbury was the home of many leading writers and intellectuals who we would now call LGBTQ+. Why not get the most out of your visit with an expert Blue Badge Tourist Guide?

I’ll finish with a quote from London’s first openly-gay celebrity, Quentin Crisp:

‘Time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis.’

queer britain tour

I’m Ric and I have three Blue Badges in tourist guiding: Southern England (2001), South East England (2015) and London (2021). I have a background in English language teaching and voice coaching, and I have a degree in Classical Studies and a Masters in English Language Teaching.

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Queer Britain: A guided tour of the first museum dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community in London

Queer Britain: A guided tour of the first museum dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community in London

The LGBTQ+ community will soon have a museum dedicated to its history in the King’s Cross district of London in Granary Square.

In Granary Square, in the famous King’s Cross district, a museum dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community’s history will soon open its doors in London . 

“The UK is finally getting the LGBTQ+ museum it deserves, to reflect and celebrate all our exciting and wildly diverse communities, whatever their sexualities, gender identities, backgrounds, ability or heritage. Community lives in unity,” says Anjum Mouj, a trustee at Queer Britain, the organisation behind the museum. 

Preserving LGBTQ+ stories and ideas

This new museum will be housed in a historic building belonging to the British organisation Art Fund and will be overseen by Queer Britain. The goal of this group: to preserve “stories and ideas” that are tied to the United Kingdom’s LGBTQ+ community. 

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For Queer Britain, a part of LGBTQ+ culture risks being lost: “Queer people have impacted every part of culture, yet all too often their lives have been written in the margins of history books. Valuable stories and artefacts are being lost. Once gone, they may never be recovered. We are giving these a dedicated space to be preserved, explored and celebrated,” she explains.

Showcasing works and artefacts tied to the community

This is the first time that a museum will be entirely dedicated to LGBTQ+ history in the United Kingdom. However, other institutions like the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Museums Liverpool have several artefacts tied to the queer community in their collections. 

In the United States , a similar museum will open its doors in New York in 2024. It will seek to strike “a careful balance between New York and national queer history,” according to the New York Times . It will be added to the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in the SoHo district, whose mission is “preserving, diversifying, and making accessible the artworks,” of artists such as Winston Leyland, Wilhelm von Gloeden and Cheryl A. Traendly.

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Pride March

Pride in London takes place this weekend and 2022 is a significant one, with the festival hitting its 50th birthday. This year, the focus is on reflecting on the milestones in the history of the queer community. The first ever museum to do this in the UK opened its doors in spring, and while the community continues to see queer spaces closing down (over 60% of London’s spaces have closed down in the last decade or so), learning from the past feels incredibly significant to keep moving forward. Here, we look at where we can continue to educate ourselves on LGBTQ+ history.

1. Queer Britain, London

The UK’s first national museum centering LGBTQ+ history and culture opened its doors to the public on 5 May 2022 in London’s King’s Cross. The charity behind the museum has been campaigning and fundraising since 2018 to create the only permanent space in Britain to celebrate and reflect on the lives of LGBTQ+ people, their stories and places. Inside, there are temporary exhibitions, immersive experiences, historical and queer artifacts spread across four galleries, as well as spaces for the community, a workshop, education space and a gift shop. It’s free to visit, open Wednesday to Sunday, from midday until 6pm.

2. Queer the Pier, Brighton

Launched in 2020, this exhibition is a community-curated endeavour that shines a light on the town’s LGBTQ+ past. The memorabilia here is inspired by writers, artists, performers, activists and locals in Brighton who are part of the community. Film, photography, oral histories and artifacts are found throughout, like the typewriter used by Peter Burton to document years of queer history for Gay Times . There’s a Queer Looks exhibition, too, which looks at LGBTQ+ identities through clothing, from the 1960s until today. It’s housed in the old stables in the Brighton Museum’s Pavilion and is running until March 2023. The exhibition is free with general admission to the museum or free to residents and members. Once the exhibition is over, there’s the Piers & Queers walking tour to join.

3. Edinburgh’s Queer History

Blue Badge Tourist Guide Hannah Mackay Tait runs a couple of walking tours of the Scottish city (the other focuses on Women’s History). For the Queer History tour, there’s over 90 minutes of walking in Edinburgh’s Old Town to rediscover the stories that history tried to erase and those that have shaped Scotland today. The walk takes in areas that unveil poignant moments in Scottish history from trans pioneers from the 19th century and activist queer booksellers to spots where the LGBTQ+ community fought against persecution of homosexuality. Hannah keeps accessibility in mind on the tours and while there are no steps or stairs, there are some slopes and cobbled streets on the route. More detailed descriptions of the places on the route are available for anyone with a visual impairment.

4. Bishopsgate Institute, London

The Bishopsgate Institute was established as a centre for learning and culture in 1895 and holds a large section of LGBTQ+ archives. It covers from the late 19th century onwards, including archives from Switchboard, Stonewall and the Terrence Higgins Trust and more. There’s also a section from the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive, which has some 300,000 press cuttings covering non-violent campaigns for action for the human rights of queer people, as well as from the UK Leather and Fetish Archives, which focuses on the history of kink, fetish and BDSM in the UK’s LGBTQ+ communities. Tours of the archives are available, but there are also talks, courses and walking tours.

5. Exploring LGBTQ+ history at National Trust spots, Kent and East Sussex

The National Trust explored its queer heritage with a series in 2017 called Prejudice and Pride, looking at its spaces that have been shaped by LGBTQ+ people who challenged conventions. Events and exhibitions were held, and while there hasn’t been any news of more emerging, the places steeped in queer history around East Sussex and Kent are still around to visit and to learn from. You can head to Monk’s House in East Sussex, a 16 th -century country retreat for Virginia Woolf, which includes some of her personal items. Elsewhere, there’s Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent, which was founded by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, whose open marriage carved out space for queer relationships in their lives.

Read more:  Travelling with pride: how the travel industry is embracing LGBTQ+ travellers

6. Manchester Heritage Trail

Also called the Out in the Past Trail , this urban path through the northern city is marked by rainbow flag paving stones. There are more than a dozen important locations across the city that mark a point of queer history for Manchester. This one is a self-guided trail, so takes a little research in advance. For one that’s a little easier to follow, there’s the LGBTQ+ Walking Tour , which zones in on the history of Canal Street. The city became a forefront for change in the 1980s after nominating the first openly queer mayor candidate, Margaret Ross. Since then, Canal Street has been known as the Gay Village, with monuments, memorials and murals galore.

7. Queer History Walking Tour, London

Delivering a camp medley of storytelling, piano covers and original pop songs, Mark T Cox is a regular performer in London’s cabaret shows. As well as writing and starring in musicals, he runs a walking tour that covers a snippet of the complex LGBTQ+ history in London, including iconic people and places who have been central to the community. The tour focuses on the West End, predominantly Soho, which looks into the development of what has become one of the most known queer neighbourhoods in the world. The tours run for two hours every Sunday, with a Pay What you Can option.

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Queer Britain gives the U.K. its first national LGBTQ museum

Selected images from the “Welcome to Queer Britain” display.

The United Kingdom’s first national LGBTQ museum opens its doors in London’s King’s Cross neighborhood Thursday, almost exactly 50 years after England’s first Gay Pride march took place just a few miles away.

Queer Britain is the culmination of years of behind-the-scenes work by co-founder and director Joseph Galliano and his team to bring the museum and its charity to life. Galliano, the former editor of the U.K.’s Gay Times magazine, said while the museum’s moment has been a long time coming, it’s finally arrived.

“There’ve been attempts to set up museums like this before, but I think the cultural landscape and the activism landscape weren’t yet quite right at that point,” he said. “It’s also a long job that requires somebody hitting the streets every day to make it work, and I’ve done that for the last five years now.”

A major component of that work has been raising funds, which Galliano said have come mostly from private individuals via Queer Britain’s patron and membership programs. Corporate partnerships have also funded specific pieces of project work, and direct support has come in from a few companies.

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Queer Britain’s first show in its own space — on the ground floor of 2 Granary Square, a building owned by the British national arts charity, Art Fund — will be the aptly titled "Welcome to Queer Britain." The temporary display will act as an introduction to Queer Britain and its mission by presenting works from the museum’s growing archive alongside pieces from exhibitions previously co-mounted in other spaces.

Also on show during this opening phase will be the top two artworks (by Sadie Lee and Paul Harfleet) from last year’s first Queer Britain Madame F Award competition, a collaboration with Madame F wines. "Welcome to Queer Britain" is curated by Matthew Storey, an art, design and LGBTQ history curator at the U.K.’s Historic Royal Palaces organization.

“We wanted to open as quickly as we could with a celebration of photographic material that we’ve already exhibited,” Galliano explained. “We wanted to be able to welcome people into the space with stuff that’s meaningful while we were preparing a more complex exhibition.”

queer britain tour

That full exhibition, yet untitled, will open this summer and, according to Galliano, will set the full stage for the museum’s diversity-committed mission.

“We’ll always be changing and adapting and putting on exhibitions that will address different community stories and different communities’ stories,” he said. “Our next exhibition, however, is going to be a sort of flag in the sand for the kind of things that Queer Britain wants to do. It’ll be a cacophony of different community voices, artifacts, art objects, imagery and people.”

Galliano said that behind the scenes, the museum’s trustees have been expressly recruited with both skills and diversity in mind.

“Diversity is in the very DNA of what we’re trying to do,” he said. “And when I look at our board, this is one of the most diverse boards I’ve ever come across. I’m really delighted to be working with them, as they all bring in different perspectives.”

Admission to Queer Britain will be free to the public, with donations welcomed to support its work. The new space will include a shop selling Queer Britain merchandise alongside books curated by Gay’s the Word, the U.K.’s oldest LGBTQ bookseller, with all profits directly supporting the museum and charity.

With the United States' own national LGBTQ museum in the works and slated for a 2024 opening in New York City, Galliano said he believes we’ve entered an era when queer history and culture are being explored and respected as never before, even by people who don’t identify on the LGBTQ spectrum.

queer britain tour

“If you go back to the 'Queer British Art' exhibition at Tate Britain in 2017, that clearly demonstrated a massive thirst for queer stories,” he said. “Given that their exhibition visitors were about 50-50 LGBTQ+ identifying and not LGBTQ+ identifying, I think that goes to show us not only that you can create a blockbuster, but how broad the audience for that blockbuster on these things can be.”

For now at Queer Britain, though, Galliano said he’s more focused on creating blockbuster experiences than blockbuster numbers.

“The point about who comes through the door is not one of mere quantities,” he said. “What we’re looking for are the qualities that people leave the door with, and the emotions and understanding that they leave the museum with. I want people to feel celebrated, I want people to feel thoughtful, and I want people to be seen and to feel that they’ve been seen.

“If we only hit one person like that, we’ve done the job.”

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Queer Britain GRANARY Building

Celebrating LGBTQ+ history & culture at Queer Britain

Words:  Charlotte Coates

| 9 min read

As the UK’s first national LGBTQ+ museum opens to the public, we speak to co-founder Joseph Galliano

Queer Britain, London’s newest museum, opens to the public on 5 May 2022. As the UK’s first national LGBTQ+ museum , it is a space where everyone will be welcome as they explore the diverse history of the Queer community.

The charity was co-founded by  Joseph Galliano  in 2018, with the goal of creating a museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ people. The opening of a physical space this month is the result of a long campaign by many staff and volunteers, who have been working over the last four years to bring the vision to life.

queer britain lgbtq museum

Before the doors opened to the public, we met with Galliano for a preview of the museum and to find out more about what visitors can expect.

The inspiration behind Queer Britain

In a previous role as the editor of Gay Times, Galliano says that he became interested in the generation gap in the gay community. This was, in part, sparked by the 40th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, in 2007.

Izzy iii by Alia Romagnoli, Chosen Families

“At this point, we spoke to young men who hadn’t yet been born in 1967, and we also spoke to men who were already adults in 1967. We wanted to find out what they knew about each other’s lives. And it turned out it wasn’t a great deal. In fact, some of those younger people hadn’t realised that it had been illegal.”

Ten years after this, as the 50th-anniversary came around in 2017, Galliano still felt that something was missing in terms of telling this important history and telling real people’s stories. 

“The question that really came up for me was, if people aren’t hearing about their culture and their heritage in a consistent and meaningful way, at school, in museums, amongst their family, friends, popular culture, etc., then how are they going to know what questions to ask? Where are they going to find that information and that connection?

“At the same time, the Queer British Art 1861-1967 exhibition at Tate Britain marked the 50 anniversary of the partial decriminalisation. We felt very strongly that if there was a time to set up a museum for these communities, now was the time to act. There was so much momentum that built up in the culture sector around that anniversary. We felt that if we didn’t seize the moment, then that momentum could have very easily dissipated until the next big anniversary.”

Creating a space to showcase Queer stories

The Queer Britain team set out to create a space where all members of the LBGTQ+ community could see their stories being told.  

“I imagine a person who has recently come out to their parents, and they are visiting together, as an example. It is a space for them to come together, and feel included and for the young person to come away with a head exploded about what kind of heritage they come from, what kind of culture they exist within, and what kind of contributions to society LGBTQ+ people have made. And I want the parents to come away feeling like they are part of that family as well.

“My number one vision was to make it welcoming, and celebratory.”

Welcome to Queer Britain exhibition

“There’s room for the hard stories as well, of course, but in the context of showcasing these fantastic set of communities that deserve to be celebrated and deserve to be seen.”

For Galliano and the rest of the team, it has been a labour of love to get to this milestone. Speaking about the journey, he says:

“What I have noticed most of all is just how many people want to see this happen and what it means for so many people. It really is a precious thing I’ve been holding in my hands. And I hadn’t really understood when I started on that project.”

Having “worn through many pairs of shoes” over the last few years, when asked how it feels to finally see the museum become a reality , Galliano’s response is simply: “Joyous.”

Welcome to Queer Britain

On 5 May, Queer Britain’s programming will begin with a temporary exhibition called “Welcome to Queer Britain”. This will run for eight weeks and will serve as an introduction to the new museum and its vision.

The exhibition will feature a range of pieces from its collection, alongside artwork from the Queer Britain archive. The archive is currently located at the Bishopsgate Institute and is accessible to the public and researchers by appointment. Also on show will be images from a previous collaborative exhibition between Queer Britain, Getty Images and M&C Saatchi.

In addition, visitors will be able to enjoy photographs from the 2019 “Chosen Family” exhibition. This was a collaboration with Levi’s and Queer Britain. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Queer Britain (@queerbritain)

Matthew Storey is the curator of “Welcome to Queer Britain” and also the art, design and LGBTQ+ history curator for Historic Royal Palaces . He says:

“It has been amazing to follow the journey of Queer Britain from a first idea to the opening of the UK’s first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ people. It has been an honour to curate the opening display that showcases Queer Britain’s achievements so far.

“I hope that the photographs chosen reflect the rich diversity of the LGBTQ+ community past and present, as we look to the future of this important new museum.”

The top two winning artworks from the Queer Britain Madame Prize will also be on show. Sponsored by Madame F, this was an art award on the theme of Queer Creativity. It took inspiration from illustrator  Justin Kemp , who designed the Susy the Frog image featured on the brand’s wine labels. As well as sponsoring, Madame F also created a bespoke Queer Britain wine to sell in the museum’s gift shop.

A welcoming new space

The new museum, located at Art Fund’s building in Granary Square in London , is calm and welcoming. It is home to four galleries, alongside workshop and education space and the gift shop. There are also offices for the Queer Britain team.

“We’re delighted to welcome Queer Britain as our new tenants,” said  Jenny Waldman , Art Fund director. “Their exciting proposal for the first UK museum dedicated to exploring LGBTQ+ histories, people and ideas was warmly supported by our trustees, and we’re thrilled that our beautiful building in Granary Square will be home for the first phase of the Queer Britain museum.”

selected images from the _Welcome To Queer Britain_ display

In addition to the content on the walls, Queer Britain will be a space where visitors can reflect, feedback, and share their own stories.

“Our visitors literally will be the people who are on the wall,” says Galliano. “There’s no one set of stories. It’s a shifting, changing set of stories that will change as people engage with them. People will bring their own sense of self into the space.

“We have been given this opportunity to have this beautiful space where people can visit and see these stories, but they also become part of it too. Yes, it’s important that it’s bricks and mortar. But it’s just as important that people will be here, sharing their stories.”

More programming to come

Raheem ii Credit Alia Romagnoli Chosen Families exhibit

During the last four years, Queer Britain has established a strong online presence as it built momentum for the campaign. For instance, just last month it hosted online events to explore the legendary women’s club, The Gateways, and to celebrate the Bank of England’s new £50 note, which features an image of the code-breaking gay scientist,  Alan Turing.

In terms of the physical space, the team also has lots of plans for bringing in different community groups. Queer Britain wants to establish robust outreach and education programmes going forward. However, for now:

“We are just so excited to get people in so they can experience it and feel a part of it. We want them to feel welcomed into this family that we’re growing around this institution.”

The Queer Britain team is already hard at work curating the next exhibition, which will open in late July.

Highlights at Queer Britain

At the end of the four-year endeavour to establish a physical museum, Galliano and his team are finally able to enjoy seeing the finished space come together, with the art on the walls, merchandise ready to sell in the shop , and a smell of fresh paint still in the air. However, when asked about his favourite items, he says he finds it an impossible choice:

“I love them all. I love the Chosen Family exhibition because they are such beautiful snapshots of Queer life. They are warm and engaging and full of joy. Then, the heritage material from Getty Images is also fantastic.  

Queer Britain SADIE LEE David Hoyle

He indicates one personal highlight, next to us on the wall:

“I love this picture of  David Hoyle  by Sadie Lee . This was one of the winning entries to the Queer Britain Madame F Award. It’s just such a beautiful painting. It’s incredible – it’s hard to believe it’s a painting. She bought out the essence of this legendary performance artist. She’s almost managed to make it look more like David Hoyle than David Hoyle does!”

In addition, Galliano draws attention to the second prize winner. This part of a series by Paul Harfleet called Birds Can Fly. Born of a life-long passion for ornithology, the series features Harfleet’s drawings of birds side by side with self-portrait images where the artist has used his own wardrobe, styling, and make-up skills to echo their style. This body of work is a Queer exploration that delves into the politics of ornithology.

Guests at the museum can also visit the shop. This features Queer Britain merchandise alongside books curated by Gay’s The Word. All profits will go directly back to support the museum and charity.

Exploring and celebrating a diverse heritage

Galliano’s key message is that the Queer Britain team wants people to come and feel a part of the museum:

“Those visitors are the family that we want to be creating. Without those visitors, we’re just a building. They will be what makes us, and what allows us to change and evolve over time. One of the thoughts that we keep coming back to is that traditionally people come to museums to see them. But I think this is a museum that people will visit to be  seen . In every sense.”

As Queer Britain’s website states:

“Queer people have impacted every part of culture. Yet all too often their lives have been written in the margins of history books. Valuable stories and artefacts are being lost. Once gone, they may never be recovered. These deserve a dedicated space to be preserved, explored, and celebrated. Queer Britain will put this centre stage.”

Queer Britain is a fully accessible venue with lifts and ramps. Entry is free, while the museum welcomes donations to support the charity’s work. Queer Britain is located at 2 Granary Square, London, N1C 4BH. It is open Wednesday to Sunday from 12 pm – 6 pm.

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THE UK'S FIRST AND ONLY LGBTQ+  MUSEUM

queer britain tour

GET IN TOUCH

OUR HISTORY

JOIN OUR TEAM

VISITOR INFO

HOLD YOUR EVENT

EVENT  TO CELEBRATE 

 RADCLYFFE  HALL  

FIRST POP-UP EXHIBITION

WITH PARTNER LEVIS IN 2019

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ABOUT QUEER BRITAIN

OUR SPACE WAS

BUILT IN   1850

BY  ARCHITECT

LEWIS CUBITT

queer britain tour

VISITS AND TOURS

ART AWARD ​

COLLABORATION

WITH MADAME F

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SPACES  TO HIRE

FOR  EVENTS

SOME OF OUR

 EVENTS AND COLLABORATIONS

queer britain tour

EVENTS / COLLABORATION

AND SUPPORT

OUR  MAGNETIC

queer britain tour

Can I submit my CV for consideration?  Please do not submit your CV unless it is for a specific role we are recruiting for. CVs and applications submitted otherwise will be disregarded. To check if we are currently looking for a new member of the team, check our socials, website or LinkedIn.

Do you offer work experience?  We currently do not offer work experience placements. Due to the small size of our team we don’t have the capacity or ability to do so. If this changes, we will update this section.

Can I volunteer for Queer Britain?  Yes. We recruit for volunteers twice a year (once in Autumn and once in Spring). If you would like to be considered for a volunteer position, please email [email protected] . Please note that we are currently only recruiting for Front of House team volunteers, who are responsible for visitor experience, assistance in the gallery and events.

How can I support the museum?  There are many ways you can support the museum on its journey to becoming a permanent home for LGBTQ+ history.

  • Purchase something in our gift shop.
  • Make a one off donation. All donations help us to stay open and to protect LGBTQ+ histories from erasure. Donate here .
  • Tap to donate at a touchpoint in our museum.
  • Become a QB member. Members are donors who set up a regular, monthly donation schedule starting at £1. In return, we’ll add you to the mailing list for our newsletter and send occasional invites for events, talks and happenings. Become a member here .

How can I stay in touch with Queer Britain?  For updates on our news, events and happenings, please join our mailing list  here . Or follow us on our socials ( Instagram and Twitter ) @QueerBritain

GETTING INVOLVED

queer britain tour

QUEER BRITAIN MUSEUM LTD IS A CHARITABLE COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE

COMPANY NUMBER 11253032 / CHARITY NUMBER 1180240 REGISTERED OFFICE 2 GRANARY SQUARE, KING'S CROSS, LONDON N1C 4BH

QUEER BRITAIN® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK / © 2024

Queer Britain logo

Culture | Exhibitions

Queer Britain: The UK’s first LGBTQ+ museum will be opening in London this May

queer britain tour

The UK’s first LGBTQ + museum will be officially opening to the public from May 5.

Called Queer Britain, the museum will be based in Kings Cross and will be launching with a “Welcome to Queer Britain” temporary display.

This will serve as an introduction to the charity and its mission, while the team prepares their debut exhibition – and will display pieces from the museum’s growing photographic collection, as well as artworks from the Queer Britain archive.

The curator of the display will be Matthew Storey, who currently serves as the Art, design and LGBTQ+ history curator for Historic Royal Palaces. He will be combining pieces from previous exhibitions with portraits from Allie Crewe, Robert Taylor and Sadie Lee.

“It has been amazing to follow the journey of Queer Britain from a first idea to the opening of the UK’s first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ people,” Storey says.

“It has been an honour to curate the opening display that showcases Queer Britain’s achievements so far. I hope that the photographs chosen reflect the rich diversity of the LGBTQ+ community past and present, as we look to the future of this important new museum.”

queer britain tour

Designed as a truly inclusive space, the museum will aim to welcome everybody from within and outside the community – and will invite them to experience and enjoy some of what the museum has been collecting for the past four years.

The museum will also be displaying two award-winning artworks by Sadie Lee and Paul Harfleet, who won the Queer Britain Madame Prize on the theme Queer Creativity.

Speaking about the opening, director and co-founder Joseph Galliano says: "We are so proud to welcome people into Queer Britain’s space for the very first time.

“This represents a hugely important step, as the UK opens the doors of its own national LGBTQ+ museum; the start of something beautiful.

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“We welcome all feedback from our visitors and see this opening before our debut exhibition as a real opportunity to connect with the public and what they want from the Queer Britain space so that over time we can truly shift and evolve."

Though the museum will be free to visit, it will be welcoming donations to support its work.

Queer Britain is located at 2 Granary Square, London, N1C 4BH and will be open Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm - 6pm from May 5

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Queer and Now 2023

Queer and Now 2023 © Tate

Programme overview

Accessibility, families 10.00–17.00, art and museums 11.00–18.00, queer joy 18.00–22.00.

Celebrate the return of Tate Britain’s Queer and Now festival dedicated to the powerful role of LGBTQIA+ art and culture in the UK

Featuring a compelling cast of artists, cultural producers, and thinkers, we’ll be placing queerness at the heart of the gallery.

This year's programme will surface urgent queer conversations visible in Tate Britain's brand-new collection displays. The temporary exhibition programme will explore powerful themes of desire, history and culture in the filmmaking of Isaac Julien and the radical romance of the Rossettis .

From morning to late, our spaces will be activated by free performances, pop-up talks, making workshops, family events, DJs, films and readings from artists rooted in the UK’s queer community and its histories.

Queer and Now is a bold and celebratory day welcoming a wide, diverse and majority LGBTQIA+ audience. Our priority is to ensure this is a safe, inclusive and respectful space for our visitors, colleagues and partners. Find out more about how we do this . Tate members of staff wearing Vibe Checker lanyards will be on hand to help you enjoy the day. Any questions? Just ask.

All events are drop-in except those marked with an asterisk (*) which require a free ticket to be collected on the day.

A creative queer programme for all the family.

10.00–17.00 Story Space

10.00–17.00 Story Space Pop-Up: Queer and Now

10.00–17.00 Play Studio

11.00–13.00 and 14.00–16.00 Story Space: Sensing The Alter-Ego Workshop

11.00–16.00 Play Studio Pop-Up: India Harvey

14.00–15.00 and 15.30–16.30 Play Studio: Punk Workshop and Performance

An exploration of the connections between Tate's historic collections and LGBTQIA+ culture today. Aimed at audiences 16+  

10.00–21.30 Interpretation Artist in Residence

11.00–15.00 Show and Share: Queering the Library

12.00–17.00 Beyond the Frame

12.00–18.00 Reprezent Radio Plays Queer and Now

12.00 and 14.00 Queer Collection Tour: 1890–1945 *

12.00–18.00 Museum of Transology Archiving Workshop

12.00–20.00 Queer Marketplace

13.00–15.00 Museum of Transology Intersex Community Collecting

13.00 and 16.00 Not on Display

12.00–13.45 Film Screening and Discussion: Permissible Beauty *

12.00–16.00 Archive Alley: London Metropolitan Archives

12.00–16.00 Archive Alley: Wellcome Collection

12.00–16.00 Archive Alley: Bishopsgate Institute*

13.30–14.30 Queering the Collection: Exploring Tate Britain *

14.00–15.00 In Conversation with Topher Campbell and Mendez *

14.00–17.00 oestrogeneration pop-up

14.00–18.00 QUEERCIRCLE Curates

15.00 and 17.00 Queer Relay *

15.00–17.00 Embroidering Identities with Emem Usanga

16.00–17.00 In Conversation: AI art and the new-born digital 'Queero' *

16.00–17.30 What Does A Genderqueer Museum Look Like? *

16.00–17.30 Metamorphosis life drawing

Queer Joy as an act of resistance and resilience with performers, DJs and late openings of exhibitions and collection galleries. 18+

18.00–18.30 Interpretation Artist in Residence: Performance

18.00–21.30 Otherness Archive Screening: Rage and Joy, Grief and Play *

18.30–21.30 PXSSY PALACE Play Queer & Now *

18.30–21.30 An Evening of Performances by Black Ops Poetry, Claye Bowler, Drag Syndrome, Mascette and Wet Mess *

Outdoors 12.00–21.00

In addition to the Djanogly cafe, there will be a bar and a variety of vegan food vendors throughout our outdoor spaces. Relax to the sounds of Reprezent Radio or join our workshops on the lawn .

*Free tickets required. Available to collect from the Manton ticket desk from 10.00 for events happening between 11.00–14.00 and from 14.00 for all other ticketed events.

Tate Britain's step-free entrance is on Atterbury Street. It has automatic sliding doors and there is a ramp down to the entrance with central handrails.

There is a lift between the Lower and Main floors. Alternatively you can take the stairs.

  • Accessible and standard toilets are located on the Lower floor.
  • A Changing Places toilet is not currently available.
  • Ear defenders can be borrowed from the ticket desk on the Lower floor

British Sign Language

The following events will have British Sign Language Interpretation:

  • 12.00–12.30 Queer Collection Tour
  • 14.00–15.00 In Conversation with Topher Campbell & Mendez
  • 16.00–17.30 What Does a Gender Queer Museum Look Like?

Quiet spaces

We recognise that large events can be overwhelming, so we have quiet spaces available for visitors who need a break or a quiet moment.

To help plan your visit to Tate Britain, have a look at our visual story . It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.

For more information before your visit:

Tate Britain

Date & time.

10 June 2023 at 10.00–22.00

Everyone welcome Not all events are for all ages. Where relevant this will be shown by clear signage, event descriptions, and members of our team.

All events are free but some require tickets. Tickets will be available at the Manton ticket desk from 10.00 for events happening between 11.00–14.00 and from 14.00 for all other ticketed events.

Tickets for Isaac Julien: What Freedom is to Me will be 30% off for the day

Story Space

A place for all to read, imagine, play and create

Story Space Pop-Up: Queer and Now

Read, imagine and play in the galleries

Story Space: Sensing the Alter-Ego Workshop

How can you channel, sound and unlock your alter-ego?

Play Studio

A space for families to explore and test out ways of making and playing together linked to the new collection displays

Play Studio Pop-Up: India Harvey

Dress-up, move and play in the galleries together

Play Studio: Punk Workshop and Performance

Be seen and heard alongside punk protest band, RugChats

Interpretation Artist in Residence

How can sound create new pathways and routes into the museum?

Show and Share: Queering the Library

For Queer and Now 2023, Tate's Library and Archive team are putting on a Show and Share displaying highlights from its vast national collection

Beyond the Frame

Ever wanted to change what we see inside, and beyond, the picture frame?

Reprezent Radio Plays Queer and Now

Reprezent Radio are providing the sounds in the Clore Sculpture Court

Queer Collection Tour: 1890–1945

Discover the fascinating world of queer art at Tate Britain, and gain insight into the lives and works of some of the most influential artists from the modern period

Museum of Transology Archiving Workshop

You can be a Museum of Transology Community Curator

Museum of Transology Intersex Community Collecting

The Intersex Collection: Object drop-off, archiving and community curating

Not On Display

Discover LGBTQIA+ art at Tate through drawing and conversation

Film Screening and Discussion: Permissible Beauty

Join us for a special presentation of Permissible Beauty

Archive Alley: London Metropolitan Archives

Discover the collections of London Metropolitan Archives and how to look for LGBTQIA+ histories

Archive Alley: Wellcome Collection

Discover LGBTQ+ Voices from the archives at Wellcome Collection

Archive Alley: Bishopsgate Institute

Discover the vast holdings of the Bishopsgate Insitute and join Stef Dickers for a discussion on the UK Fetish Archive

Queering the Collection: Exploring Tate Britain

In this workshop you’ll be joining Nan, from Queer Britain and Tabs, from Wellcome Collection, to explore Tate Britain and its collection through a queer lens

oestrogeneration: Pop-up

Meet oestrogeneration founder June Bellebono and magazine contributors Biogal and Carly Yvoty Fernandez

QUEERCIRCLE curates

QUEERCIRCLE curates a day of making public noise visible

Queer Relay

Discover works in the collection through a queer lens

What Does A Genderqueer Museum Look Like?

Returning for the fourth time, this edition confronts the urgency of making gender non-conforming, trans and intersex people visible in heritage spaces

Metamorphosis life drawing

Inspired by Daphne's transformation into a laurel tree in Ovid's Metamorphosis , join an interactive life drawing class with artist Zahra Coulthard in the Henry Moore room

Embroidering Identities with Emem Usanga

Join Emem to create your own embroidery patch

In Conversation: AI art and the new-born digital ‘Queero’

Meet 'Bruce Lee Chow', a digital queer hero merging the artist Whiskey Chow’s head with Bruce Lee's iconic masculine Asian body to summon a physical and spiritual safety for LGBTQIA+ communities

In Conversation with Topher Campbell and Mendez

Join artist and filmmaker Topher Campbell for this special discussion with author and critic Mendez

Shop from a variety of makers in our Queer Marketplace

Interpretation artist in residence: performance.

Join us for a special performance from Joshua Woolford

Otherness Archive Screening: Rage and Joy, Grief and Play

Join Otherness Archive for a screening centred around joy, laughter and rage

PXSSY PALACE Play Queer and Now

London’s legendary PXSSY PALACE turn up the volume for Queer and Now

An Evening of Performances: Black Ops Poetry, Claye Bowler, Drag Syndrome, Mascette and Wet Mess

Join us for a curated evening of performances celebrating queer joy

queer britain tour

Home Culture Culture Sexuality

4 November 2022 12:06 PM

Inside Queer Britain, the UK’s first dedicated LGBTQ museum

As period lgbtq drama my policeman arrives on prime video in the uk, historian dr george severs visits queer britain in london and reflects on the community's storied and often hidden history..

By Dr George Severs

Oscar Wilde

In partnership with Prime Video

A few years ago, during LGBTQ History Month, I went on a queer trail of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. I was armed with a map and a guide who could point out notable objects on display relating to our LGBTQ past. From homoerotic paintings and engravings to works produced by important figures from queer history, the tour was fuller than I expected. The items we viewed were remarkable but, outside of LGBTQ History Month, most of us would not have realised their significance. With the guidebook in hand, a beautiful bowl by Emmanuel Cooper could be seen as the artistic creation of a gay liberationist (Cooper was a major part of the Gay Liberation Front in London in the early 70s); without it, it was simply an elegant piece of pottery. The exhibits were queer, but the museum was not. 

How wonderful, then – perhaps even liberating – to visit Queer Britain, the UK’s first museum dedicated solely to British LGBTQ history. Since it opened earlier this year in the fashionable Granary Square development behind King’s Cross station, 30,000 people have been through its doors, and with My Policeman , the heartfelt, Harry Styles-starring romantic drama exploring the very human repercussions of societal homophobia in the 1950s, now out on Prime Video in the UK, there’s no better time to connect with Britain’s queer history.

Left-right: David Dawson, Emma Corrin and Harry Styles in My Policeman

Greeting visitors as they enter is a specially commissioned photographic installation that proudly displays a gender-diverse and multi-ethnic queer celebration, making it clear that Queer Britain welcomes all. Contemporary, sleek and highly polished, the space is carefully curated, with cabinet displays on a number of themes. The current exhibition We Are Queer Britain seeks to tell the story of LGBTQ protest in modern British history. It does not relay a straightforwardly celebratory narrative; rather, political pamphlets and protest ephemera portray complicated, troubling moments from our past. Episodes of unbridled queer joy are interspersed with objects from the Aids crisis and items dating from the anti-Section 28 movement. The historical picture that results is a moving collage that successfully encompasses moments of darkness as well as light.

Part of Queer Britain’s magic are the stories its exhibits evoke. Unlike my experience in the Fitzwilliam, most objects here are ‘obviously’ queer. This often sparks joy in visitors as they recognise artefacts relating to their past. I visited with my colleague Dr Sean Brady, one of the leading experts on the British and Irish queer experience, and as we walked around the gallery, he regaled me with stories from his own queer history.

Divine’s octopus dress is displayed in the museum alongside a series of portraits by Darren Evans. He has created over 50 Divine portraits. ‘Films that Divine and John Waters made together resonate with many outsiders. Their work gave freaks, queers and gender rebels a voice’. pic.twitter.com/zdl22skFNv — Queer Britain (@QueerBritain) September 6, 2022

“I’m so old, I can remember Divine’s tour of Britain in 1984,” said Brady, pointing at the multicoloured dress worn by the legendary drag queen which sits proudly in the corner of the exhibition space. He then told me about going with his friends to see Divine perform in Liverpool that year. “We were caught up in a riot that was sparked in a club. Me and my friends had to flee while Divine fought off some very, very aggressive Liverpudlians who pulled off his wig – heterosexual Liverpool was not ready for Divine or his tour in 1984!”

All around the museum it was a similar story. Visitors would notice an exhibit and lean in for a closer look before nudging their companion next to them or summoning their friend from across the room. All around were whispers of “Remember that?”, “I was there!” and “Didn’t your friend go to that?”

Perhaps the most historic (read: old) object currently on display is the door of Oscar Wilde’s prison cell.

Oscar Wilde's cell door

Having been handed the harshest possible sentence (two years’ hard labour) for gross indecency in 1895, Wilde spent most of that time imprisoned in Reading Gaol. It was in his cell that he wrote De Profundis , a long letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas – aka Bosie – which has become a canonical piece of British queer literature. The door is a powerful exhibit. As an object illustrating the punishment inflicted on gay men in 19 th -century Britain and a testament to some of the most powerful queer writing of its period, it speaks to the complex picture of British LGBTQ history.

“It’s actually more important than people realise,” said Brady of Queer Britain after we left. “Queer history has been a process of bringing into the light that which was hidden and invisible and obscured and very difficult to access or discern.” Having a physical, permanent museum is, therefore, a hugely significant development. The displays also had a profound personal effect on him: “I felt that this was an exhibition that marked my own life as an out gay man from the age of 18 in this country, and I’m now nearly 60,” he said.

Queer trails like the one I went on at the Fitzwilliam are important. They reclaim educational spaces that purport to be for everyone and show queer visitors that they have a place in a shared history. A dedicated queer museum performs a different task – one which is no less political. It legitimises queer history as an area of public interest. Here, our past is not hidden in a shadowy corner for curators to occasionally illuminate. Queer is unapologetically the focal point.

Queer Britain has been conscious to reflect a shared, inclusive queer past. How it will engage with moments of LGBTQ tension in future exhibitions will be a challenge, but the celebratory tone the museum has achieved is entirely appropriate.

“Society,” Oscar Wilde wrote at the end of De Profundis , “will have no place for me.” It’s a feeling most queer people will recognise, and one at which Queer Britain takes aim. It shows us that not only do we have a diverse, complicated history, but it’s one that has a legitimate, vital place in society.

My Policeman is available to watch now on  Prime Video .

Dr George Severs is a Historian at Birkbeck, University of London 

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This Is The UK’s First Ever National LGBTQ+ Museum • Queer Britain

The award-winning Queer Britain museum opened back in 2022, with an aim to save and preserve LGBTQ+ history.

Sam Barker

Every now and then you read a fact, or come to a realization, that can be a bit sobering. One such fact: that the UK’s first ever national LGBTQ+ museum only just opened in 2022 . Sad though it may be that it took so long for it to be established, we’re sure grateful it exists. The Queer Britain museum joins the ranks of London’s free museums in offering a thoughtful, educational day out – without tugging on the purse strings. The museum is celebratory, representative, and informative – it allows the country’s queer communities to find a record of their past, and allows them to look to their future.

Though the museum may be new on the scene, they’ve already made a splash. At the Museums Association’s Museums Change Lives Awards 2022 , Queer Britain were awarded the Best Small Museum Project for their inaugural exhibition, ‘We Are Queer Britain!’. Not a shabby showing, and a clear demonstration of the museum’s efforts and dedication to telling queer stories.

What’s on at the Queer Britain museum

The award-winning ‘ We Are Queer Britain! ‘ exhibition remains in place at Queer Britain. The exhibition, which arrived in 2022 shortly after the museum’s opening, marks the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride March. It’s described as “a diverse and rich array of artifacts that culminates voices, objects and images from the worlds of activism, art, culture and social history covering over 100 years of queer life.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Queer Britain (@queerbritain)

Additionally, the museum is hosting two special events for LGBT+ History Month . A panel discussion on February 26 will see Zorian Clayton in conversation with photographers Robert Taylor and Alia Romagnoli. Both photographers have work currently on display at Queer Britain.

a collection of artwork on a museum wall

There will also be a photography workshop on February 12 , from Dr Asa Johannesson, Senior Lecturer at the School of Art and Media at the University of Brighton. Both events are based around the theme ‘Behind the Lens’, with the workshop allowing participants to “explore the perspectives and experiences of queer photographers and their subjects” as they are guided through a series of exercises and discussions.

Head to the website to find out more and grab tickets .

Where is the Queer Britain museum?

Queer Britain can be found near King’s Cross station, in Granary Square . It occupies part of a historic building owned by the charity, Art Fund. Inside, the museum houses four gallery spaces, a gift shop, and office facilities. There are also education and workshop spaces inside the museum. The museum is fully accessible, with lifts and ramps, as well as exhibition labels available in large print on request.  Naturally it’s a welcoming and inclusive space for all.

the exterior of the granary square building taht houses the queer britain museum

Before moving into the venue, the space was occupied by Quentin Blake’s House of Illustration. The space is the result of a four year journey of raising money and looking for appropriate venues, which kicked off back in 2018 with the launch of the Queer Britain project.

How to get involved

With the museum still in its early stages, they welcome donations and support . If you want to help save LGBTQ+ history you can become a Queer Britain Founding Member . A monthly gift of support (they suggest £10) nets you access to special members-only events, goodies such as a tote bag and badges, and signs you up for quarterly email updates. You can also make one-off donations, or join their Patron Circles. For just £10, you could help the museum to fill an archive. Further donation amounts allow them to rescue LGBTQ+ stories, and helps them to stage future exhibitions.

a number of people hanging out in one of the rooms of the queer britain museum

Head on down, learn a little, and maybe see yourself represented in a way you haven’t before in a museum. Queer Britain is here to remind us to of Britain’s LGBTQ+ history , and ensure we never forget it.

Queer Britain

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Chris Bryant in January 2024

Chris Bryant: ‘I’m quite an old-fashioned gay, in a way’

The author and Labour MP on his book about the last men in Britain to be hanged for their sexuality, his misgivings about the Church of England and the novel he always goes back to

C hris Bryant has been Labour MP for Rhondda since 2001. He is the shadow minister for creative industries and digital, and former chair of the Commons committee on standards and privileges. He has published eight books; his ninth, James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder , out last month, reconstructs the lives and deaths of James Pratt and John Smith, who in 1835 became the last men to be hanged for homosexuality in Britain.

James and John both tells the story of a terrible injustice and highlights how widespread the persecution of gay men was in this country: 404 British people were sentenced to death for the same “crime”. How did you alight on this particular case? A couple of years ago [in 2020], I wrote a book called The Glamour Boys about some gay Tory MPs in the 1930s who were killed in the war. I had to get my head into the law as it was in the 1920s and further back. And that’s how I came across this case. I’d assumed it’d be impossible to find out much about James and John: they were working-class guys – and one of them was called John Smith. But then I discovered not only that Charles Dickens visited Newgate prison when they were held there, but also the government had literally just appointed the first inspectors of prisons. And their first visit was to Newgate when James and John were awaiting execution, so they wrote about it extensively in their report to parliament.

Did you feel as though you got to know them well across the decades? I got to know them well in silhouette. I can’t, for example, even be certain how old John Smith was when he died because the newspapers reported it differently. But, for example, with William Bonell, who was the person who provided them with the room to meet in and ended up being transported to Van Diemen’s Land, there’s lots of material from the prison ship: how tall he was, how well he was, whether he had a tattoo…

The fact that we hanged people for being gay was a shock to me, particularly as we were one of the few countries with those laws… I think it will be genuinely shocking to an awful lot of people that we ever did that. And the fact that we continued doing it until 1835 is even more shocking. Most countries never did.

Did that history also come as news to you? Not really. I think I’m quite an old-fashioned gay, in a way. I’m 62. I went to university when the age of consent was 21 and when people were still arrested for importuning, under the Vagrancy Act of 1824. That’s partly why I hope a younger generation of people will read this book. Not least because there are plenty of places in the world where these things still go on. The president of Burundi is now saying that homosexuals should be taken out and stoned.

It must be a continuing source of frustration and anger to you that the Anglican communion still seems part of the problem rather than part of the solution in confronting that? I love the church in many ways. I’m a former priest. But it is profoundly depressing that the Church of England still can’t get its act together over [gay relationships]. At the moment, it feels like even the pope is going to get there first. I think, one day, people will look back on this period of our history and ask: “How could the church be so slow to recognise that it’s OK for people to love one another?”

Were those attitudes one of the reasons that you abandoned the priesthood for politics? It was a very important part of it. Definitely.

You have been a very busy chair of the parliamentary standards committee. Do you see yourself as a strongly moral person? I’m not very judgmental, partly because I hate the idea of other people judging me for my sexuality. I want a society based on respect and mutual recognition, rather than somebody looking down their nose and going: “Oh, yes, I’m going to tolerate you.”

You have said that you feel less safe as a gay man in Britain in the past five years – what did you mean by that? I wasn’t saying that if I go out in the street, I think I’m going to get beaten up – though the number of queer-bashings is up quite significantly. It’s more when I hear some Conservative politicians talk, it feels like they want to roll some of the legislation back. We still haven’t got a ban on conversion therapy. And then you hear people like Kemi Badenoch referring to a trans “epidemic”. You think, Oh my God, what is going on in these people’s minds?

Given your day jobs, how do you find the time to write? I get up quite early. I don’t have kids. And the time that many years ago I would have spent going to church on a Sunday, I spend in my study writing. Also, I feel as if this book is part of my job as an MP. I don’t know why, for example, we’ve not yet issued posthumous pardons to people like James and John. At the very least, there should somewhere be a memorial to the people that we as a nation hanged for their sexuality.

What are the books that have meant the most to you as a reader? The novel I go back to is The Red and the Black by Stendhal. I love the moral ambiguity in it. I read Dickens a lot. And I read the Bible – I love the fact that Jesus taught through parables rather than rules.

What books do you currently have by your bedside? I’m reading Anna Reid’s A Nasty Little War about the west’s attempt to undermine the communist revolution in Russia. Judi Dench’s book about Shakespeare is up next.

  • Chris Bryant
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IMAGES

  1. A Guide To Gay London for LGBTQ Travelers

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  2. Queer Britain

    queer britain tour

  3. Queer Britain: UK's first LGBTQ+ museum to open in London

    queer britain tour

  4. HISTORY

    queer britain tour

  5. Queer Britain: Inside the UK's first-ever LGBTQI+ museum [watch]

    queer britain tour

  6. Queer History Walking Tour

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COMMENTS

  1. VISIT

    queer britain museum ltd is a charitable company limited by guarantee. company number 11253032 / charity number 1180240 registered office 2 granary square, king's cross, london n1c 4bh. queer britain® is a ...

  2. Queer Britain Museum

    Find Queer Britain. 2 Granary Square. N1C 4BH. For more information and opening times. See on Google Maps. Visit the Queer Britain website. The UK's first museum of queer culture boasts a fascinating archive and is a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community. Queer Britain Museum King's Cross.

  3. Queer Britain: the UK's First LGBTQ+ Museum

    If you want to find out more about the heritage and regeneration of the King's Cross area around the Queer Britain museum, you can go on a London Architecture Tour - Modern and Contemporary. If you want to explore London's rich and varied LGBTQ+ life, the first stop would be Soho, with its bars, restaurants, and heaps of cultural heritage.

  4. LGBTQIA+ Tours at Tate Britain

    For more information before your visit: Email [email protected]. Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 - option 1 (daily 09.45-18.00) Check all Tate Britain accessibility information. Meet at top of the Rotunda Stairs. Millbank. London SW1P 4RG.

  5. Queer Britain: A guided tour of the first LGBTQ+ museum in London

    adresse : 2 Granary Square. ville : London. pays : United Kingdom. aeroport plus proche : London Heathrow. For Queer Britain, a part of LGBTQ+ culture risks being lost: "Queer people have impacted every part of culture, yet all too often their lives have been written in the margins of history books. Valuable stories and artefacts are being lost.

  6. Seven of the most interesting queer history hotspots across the UK

    1. Queer Britain, London. The UK's first national museum centering LGBTQ+ history and culture opened its doors to the public on 5 May 2022 in London's King's Cross. The charity behind the museum has been campaigning and fundraising since 2018 to create the only permanent space in Britain to celebrate and reflect on the lives of LGBTQ+ ...

  7. Queer Britain

    Queer Britain is a museum of British LGBTQ history and culture located in Kings Cross, London.It is the first dedicated LGBTQ museum in the UK. The museum consists of three connected galleries plus a shop and occupies the ground floor of 2 Granary Square, a building owned by the Art Fund, with office and studio space on lower ground.Admission is free.

  8. Queer Britain gives the U.K. its first national LGBTQ museum

    Courtesy Queer Britain. Queer Britain's first show in its own space — on the ground floor of 2 Granary Square, a building owned by the British national arts charity, Art Fund — will be the ...

  9. 'This is for everyone!': inside Britain's first ever LGBTQ+ museum

    Photograph: Wesley/Getty Images. So this really is an opportune moment to launch what is, astonishingly, Britain's first ever national LGBTQ+ museum, established by the charity Queer Britain ...

  10. Queer Britain

    Queer Britain, London's newest museum, opens to the public on 5 May 2022. As the UK's first national LGBTQ+ museum, it is a space where everyone will be welcome as they explore the diverse history of the Queer community.. The charity was co-founded by Joseph Galliano in 2018, with the goal of creating a museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ people.The opening of a physical space this month is the ...

  11. FAQ

    What is Queer Britain? Queer Britain is the charity that opened the UK's first bricks and mortar national LGBTQ+ museum on 4 May 2022. In our opening year, we welcomed over 50,000 people through our doors. ... If you are interested in receiving a guided tour, facilitated by a member of our Front of House staff, please get in touch here ...

  12. Queer Relay

    Tate Britain Tour Queer Relay. 10 June 2023 at 15.00-16.00 and 17.00-18.00. Gluck, ... for a fast-paced tour from our LGBTQIA+ guides who will travel from past to present to uncover and share short talks on Queer works in the collection. This tour will last for an hour, portable seating is available. ...

  13. Queer Britain: The UK's first LGBTQ+ museum will open in London in May

    Queer Britain. Vicky Jessop March 31, 2022. The UK's first LGBTQ + museum will be officially opening to the public from May 5. Called Queer Britain, the museum will be based in Kings Cross and ...

  14. Queer and Now 2023

    Celebrate the return of Tate Britain's Queer and Now festival dedicated to the powerful role of LGBTQIA+ art and culture in the UK. Featuring a compelling cast of artists, cultural producers, and thinkers, we'll be placing queerness at the heart of the gallery. ... 12.00 and 14.00 Queer Collection Tour: 1890-1945* 12.00-18.00 Museum of ...

  15. UK's first national LGBT+ museum to celebrate Queer Britain

    The UK's first ever national LGBT+ museum is set to open its doors in Kings Cross, London, later this year. The museum - called Queer Britain - will explore the stories, people and places that are central to the LGBT+ community in the UK and beyond. It will be located at 2 Granary Square in Kings Cross, which is owned by Art Fund, the UK's national charity for art.

  16. Queer Britain

    Queer Britain, London, United Kingdom. 2,164 likes · 47 talking about this. Queer Britain: the national LGBTQ+ museum

  17. Inside Queer Britain, the UK's first dedicated LGBTQ museum

    The door is a powerful exhibit. As an object illustrating the punishment inflicted on gay men in 19 th -century Britain and a testament to some of the most powerful queer writing of its period, it speaks to the complex picture of British LGBTQ history. "It's actually more important than people realise," said Brady of Queer Britain after ...

  18. Queer Britain: UK's first LGBT+ museum preserving our ...

    The UK's first national LGBT+ museum, Queer Britain, is finally opening its doors more than a decade after director Joseph Galliano began plotting the revolutionary space. In 2007, Galliano was working as the editor of Gay Times magazine, and for the 40th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, he commissioned ...

  19. Queer Britain: The UK's First Ever National LGBTQ+ Museum

    The award-winning 'We Are Queer Britain!' exhibition remains in place at Queer Britain. The exhibition, which arrived in 2022 shortly after the museum's opening, marks the 50th anniversary of the UK's first Pride March. It's described as "a diverse and rich array of artifacts that culminates voices, objects and images from the ...

  20. The Best Queer Art & LGBTQ Exhibitions To Check Out Now

    Queer Britain. The UK's first museum of British LGBTQ history and culture opened in King's Cross in 2022, quickly attracting acclaim and awards. Visit to tour the gallery, or keep an eye on their what's on listings for events, exhibitions and panels. Details: Permanent space at 2 Granary Square, London N1C 4BH. queerbritain.org.uk.

  21. the national LGBTQ+ museum

    About us. Can you help Queer Britain launch the museum LGBTQ+ people have always deserved, as exciting and innovative as our beautiful and diverse communities? It won't happen without you. And if you are able to commit to a monthly gift of £50 or more, we'll thank you by sending you a pack of exclusive Queer Britain postcards. Please note ...

  22. Britain's LGBTQ+ Muslim history explored in groundbreaking ...

    A collection of queer Muslim artefacts at the UK's first LGBTQ+ museum hopes to change the narrative. In July, Queer Britain opened in London with its inaugural show, We Are Queer Britain. It's a powerful, expansive collection of art, activist and history from across the community, including artefacts from the world's longest-running LGBTQ+ Muslim organisation, Imaan.

  23. Revolutionary Acts by Jason Okundaye review

    Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain by Jason Okundaye is published by Faber (£20). To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery ...

  24. Willy Wonka-inspired experience sparks outrage and online mockery ...

    Families attending a Willy Wonka-inspired event in Glasgow, Scotland were promised "optical marvels" and "extraordinary props" for a £35 ($44) ticket, but when they arrived they found a ...

  25. Chris Bryant: 'I'm quite an old-fashioned gay, in a way'

    I think I'm quite an old-fashioned gay, in a way. I'm 62. I went to university when the age of consent was 21 and when people were still arrested for importuning, under the Vagrancy Act of 1824.

  26. US rapper Ja Rule 'devastated' at being denied entry to UK for tour

    LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - American rapper Ja Rule said he was "devastated" that he had been denied entry to Britain days before he was due to begin the opening leg of his international tour due ...

  27. Dave Myers on how cooking duo became friends before Hairy Bikers

    Dave Myers, one half of TV cooking duo The Hairy Bikers, has died at the age of 66, two years after revealing he had been diagnosed with cancer. Speaking on BBC Breakfast in November 2023, Dave ...