There will be talks, debates, performances and a 1930s cocktail menu.Īfter the club's very public closure in 1934, a big, farcical court case followed The Daily Mirror made a minor celebrity out of the club's owner Jack Neave. He known as 'Iron Foot Jack' on account of the metal device he wore on his boot to lengthen his right leg, and had many past identities as a strongman and escapologist. The walls of ‘The Caravan’ will be covered with photographs and court reports containing ‘scandalous’ accusations of ‘men seen cuddling’ in the club.
That is, until it was raided by police and shut down in 1934.Īs part of the National Trust and The National Archives’ project ‘ Queer City: London Club Culture 1918-1967’, The Caravan will temporarily reopen close to its original site, taking over the Freud Café and Bar on Shaftesbury Avenue to mark the 50 th anniversary of 1967 Sexual Offences Act. But one you might not have heard of is The Caravan, a member’s club that offered a refuge for the gay and lesbian community at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain. Pour one out for the Black Cap, Joiners Arms and Candy Bar, all of which closed down in the last four years. He has written for various left publications and is currently writing a book on capitalism and the history of gender and sexuality.The disappearance of beloved LGBTQ+ clubs in London is a painfully familiar scenario. He campaigned against Clause 28 was an organiser for Lesbians and Gays Against Pit Closures in Manchester has been active in UNISON LGBT campaigns was one of the organisers of an anti-racist Pride in London in 2012 and has campaigned against Israeli pinkwashing.
This meeting will look at the pre-Stonewall world of the 1950s and 60s how the broader radicalisation of American society affected gay people the extraordinary and inspiring details of the riot and the movement which grew out of the riot in the US and Britain.Ĭolin Wilson has been active in socialist and LGBT politics for almost forty years. LGBT people began to demand that they be accepted. In June 1969, several thousand queer people rioted for two nights in New York City, and Gay Liberation was born, as part of a broader radical movement fighting for social change. The Women's Liberation Movement was born. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s became more militant in the 1960s, and thousands joined the Black Panthers. The 1960s saw other oppressed groups fighting for change in America. Partial decriminalisation in 1967 in England and Wales made little change to overwhelming h omophobic prejudice. Lesbians and gay men could be sacked from their jobs, and trans people lived on the fringes of society. In New York no gay bar could get a licence, and raids on unlicensed bars were commonplace. At the start of the decade, all sex between men was illegal in Britain and those convicted faced two years in jail. The 1960s saw an extraordinary change in the social acceptance of gay people. Hosted by Haymarket Books and Social Histories of Revolution