As LGBT spaces continue to close down, we look at where they started. There’s been a lot of talk about the demise of the British gay bar. Of how queer spaces are disappearing or seriously under threat. And that’s because they are: in London alone, a string of iconic and important gay venues have closed … Continue reading Gay History: A Short History of the British Gay Bar
Margaret Clap (died c. 1726), better known as Mother Clap, ran a coffee house – situated in Field Lane, with an arch on one side, and the Bunch O’ Grapes tavern on the other – from 1724 to 1726 in Holborn, Middlesex, a short distance from the City of London. Notable for running a … Continue reading Gay History: Margaret “Mother” Clap’s Molly House; Raid & Trial.
May 9th, 1726. Nine men and one notorious women died at Tyburn on this date in 1726 at a more than usually raucous execution-day.“At the Place of Execution, Map got himself loose, threw himself out of the Halter, and jump’d 3 or 4 Yards from the Cart, upon the Heads of the numerous Crowd of … Continue reading Gay History: Three Molly-House Sodomites – 1726
Richard Scaddan was born in Gwinear, Cornwall, England in c1775. He was the son of Henry Scaddan & Jane Clemens. He was baptised in Gwinear on 30 July 1775. He married Catherine Penhale, in Gwinear, in 1802. They had 4 children – Richard (1803); William (1809); Sphia (1815); and James (1817). Richard was found guilty … Continue reading CONVICT: Richard Scaddan – Spouse of Catherine Penhale (My Maternal GGGG Aunt)
Just to show that there is nothing new under the sun, these newspaper reports of the Detestable Sin of Sodomy in the early 19th century show that you can’t kerp a good (gay) man down, despite the illegality of homosexual acts. Highlights are: A man apologises for libelling a servant (Aug. 1800); several cases of … Continue reading Gay History: British Newspaper Reports 1800-1803
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/06/24/remembering-the-upstairs-lounge-the-u-s-a-s-largest-lgbt-massacre-happened-40-years-ago-today/ The 24th of June in 1973 was a Sunday. For New Orleans’ gay community, it was the last day of national Pride Weekend, as well as the fourth anniversary of 1969’s Stonewall uprising. You couldn’t really have an open celebration of those events — in ’73, anti-gay slurs, discrimination, and even violence were still … Continue reading Gay History: The UpStairs Lounge Arson Attack.
The Cleveland Street scandal occurred in 1889, when a homosexual male brothel in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, London, was discovered by police. At the time, sexual acts between men were illegal in Britain, and the brothel’s clients faced possible prosecution and certain social ostracism if discovered. It was rumoured that one client was Prince Albert Victor, … Continue reading Gay History: The Cleveland Street Scandal
This group hold their place in gay history due to their two-years surveillance of Margaret “Mother” Clap’s coffee shop (Molly House), thus bringing about its closure in 1726, after a police raid in which about 40 customers were arrested. Society for the Reformation of Manners[1] was founded in the Tower Hamlets area of London in … Continue reading Gay History: The Society for the Reformation of Manners.
