From ‘Evil Men’ to ‘Disco Divas’- remapping queer London

‘London Talks’ is a new series at Bishopsgate Institute, sharing the stories of the people who have lived and worked in the city, bringing alive the distinct characteristics and areas of the capital, and demonstrating the vibrancy and diversity of the many histories of London.

In this talk, Matt Cook surveys queer London from the 1950s to the early 1980s, complicating the perhaps familiar story of a journey from persecution to liberation, from dank basement clubs to the hedonism of Heaven.

Matt Cook is professor of modern history at Birkbeck University of London. He is author of London and the Culture of Homosexuality (2003) and Queer Domesticities (2014), and the editor of A Gay History of Britain (2007), Queer 1950s (2012) and Queer Cities, Queer Cultures: Europe since 1945 (2014). He is currently working on an AHRC funded project on queer life outside the capital.