Explore United Kingdom’s LGBTQ+ History at These Landmarks and Museums

May 4, 2023 Kyle Jackson

With Pride season coming up this summer, getting a good dose of LGBTQ+ history is always a plus! We focus a lot on Pride in the United States, particularly with celebrations commemorating the Stonewall uprising in New York City and the countless contributions of people like Harvey Milk in San Francisco and the Bay area. But the United Kingdom also has its fair share of LGBTQ+ history and contributions that should not ever be overlooked!

Take a look at some of the most prominent LGBTQ+ history museums, archives, and tours offered in the United Kingdom!

London

Bishopsgate Institute LGBTQIA+ Archives

The Bishopsgate Institute was established as a center for learning and culture in 1895 and holds one of the most extensive collections on LGBTQ+ history, politics, and culture in the UK. It covers the late nineteenth century onward, encompassing LGBTQ history, politics, and culture, with archives from Stonewall, Switchboard, GMFA/The Gay Men’s Health Charity, Outrage! and material relating to the Terrence Higgins Trust, Achilles Heel, and QX magazines. Tours of the archives are available, but there are also talks and courses.

Photocopying is available 30p (38¢) per A4 sheet, 40p (50¢) per A3 sheet. Scanning is available for £3 ($3.77) per for the first scan and £1 ($1.26) for each additional page/item. For more information on Photocopying and Scanning, visit www.bishopsgate.org.uk/archives/visit.

Hours: Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (Researchers Area)
Website: www.bishopsgate.org.uk

Queer Britain

Opening in May of 2022, this is the UK’s first national museum centering on LGBTQ+ history and culture, located in London’s King’s Cross. The new museum features tons of temporary exhibitions, immersive experiences, and historical and queer artifacts, spread across four exceptional galleries! This highly informational museum also features community spaces, a workshop, an education space, and a gift shop.

Price: Free
Days and Times: Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 pm until 6 pm.
Website: www.queerbritain.org.uk

Queer History Walking Tour

Get your dose of campy storytelling medlies, piano covers, and original pop songs. Ran by Mark T. Cox, a regular London cabaret performer, and musical theatre writer, this walking tour covers just a piece of the long and elaborate LGBTQ history in London. Focusing mostly on the West End and Soho, one of the most known gayborhoods in the world, the tour educates on some of the most integral people and places to London’s LGBTQ community!

Price: Pay What You Can
Days and Times: Sundays from 11 am to 1 pm
Website: www.marktcoxartiste.com/queer-history-walking-tours

Queer Tours of London

‘Queer Tours of London – A Mince Through Time’ was founded in 2016 to commemorate, celebrate and agitate for the 2017 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexuality by the UK government.

Queer Tours of London schedules events periodically, so be sure to visit their website regularly to see what’s happening!

Brighton & Hove

Queer the Pier

Marcher wearing campaign badges from across the South East in the 1980s on loan from local Brightonian and Queer collector, Alf Le Flohic. (Photo Credit: Brighton & Hove Museums/ JJ Walker)

This exhibition is a community-curated project that shines a light on LGBTQ+ history in a way only Brighton can do it! Inspired by writers, artists, performers, activists, and locals in Brighton who are part of the community, this colorful and educational museum features everything from film and photography to oral history and artifacts (such as the typewriter used by Peter Burton to document years of queer history for Gay Times). There’s a Queer Looks exhibition, which takes a glance at LGBTQ fashion from the 1960s until today.

For more information, visit www.brightonmuseums.org.uk/event/queer-the-pier.

Manchester

Manchester Heritage Trail

Also called the ‘Out in the Past Trail’, this urban pathway through England’s largest northern city is marked by rainbow flag paving stones. With over a dozen important locations that are very important points of queer history for Manchester, this self-guided trail may take a little research in advance. However, the LGBTQ Walking Tour is easier to follow, focusing mainly on the history of Canal Street, and how the city became a pivotal place for change in the 1980s Canal Street is known as Manchester’s Gay Village, with monuments, memorials and murals letting you know exactly where you are!

For more information, visit the Manchester Heritage Trail website.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s Queer History

Tourist Guide Hannah Mackay Tait of Blue Badge runs a couple of walking tours through the queerest portions of this magnificent Scottish city. Though many of Tait’s tours focus on Women’s History, the Queer History tour is 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, taking tourists through important areas of Scottish history, highlighting Trans pioneers, Queer booksellers, and spots where the LGBTQ community battled against homophobia. Tours are accessible, with no steps or stairs (there are some slopes and cobbled streets) on the route, and detailed descriptions of the route are available for anyone with a visual impairment.

For more information, visit www.scotlandwithhannah.com/blog/edinburghs-lgbtq-history.