Although the annual pride march though central London had to be cancelled, pride roundels are popping up on the tube instead. The ten new roundels have been designed by TfL staff and prominent figures in the LGBTQ+ community and placed in tube stations chosen for their significance to the designer.
Five designs have been created by TfL staff.
A further five designs have been created each by London’s Night Czar, Amy Lamé; broadcaster and historian, Tim Dunn; activist and campaigner, Marc Thompson; designer and creator of the ‘La’ T-shirt, Philip Normal and prominent museum curator, Dan Vo.
Each of the temporary roundels has an explanatory sign next to it explaining the design and location choices.
In addition to the special roundels, there will also be a public poster campaign featuring proud TfL LGBTQ+ staff members on display in North Greenwich, Vauxhall and Green Park Tube stations.
Regrettably, pride month is still needed to overcome homophobia. More than 2,760 hate crimes were reported to police in 2019, but TfL thinks the unreported figure is much higher still.
Both the posters and the roundels will be on display for at least a month.
The London Transport Museum is also celebrating Pride with London’s original rainbow pedestrian crossing now on display at the museum in Covent Garden. It was temporarily installed at the junction of Pall Mall East and Suffolk Street in 2014 and is now part of the museum’s collection. It’s now on permanent display.