Talks

Queer Old Soho

1 hour

A virtual tour of Soho, the centre of the queer community in London for centuries, and regular haunt of Oscar Wilde, Radclyffe Hall and Quentin Crisp. It covers 500 years from ‘The Buggerie Act’ in turbulent Tudor times to 20th century music and drug culture, a very Victorian scandal (involving royalty no less!), what 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys had to say about sodomy, and just how a loud lesbian found herself being sat on by a BBC newsreader.

The Bloomsbury Set - An Introduction

30 mins

The Bloomsbury Set and Queer Old Soho

1 hour / 1.5 hours

A virtual tour of the central London neighbourhoods of Soho and Bloomsbury. Soho has been the centre of the queer community in London and the UK for over 150 years, and was a regular haunt of Oscar Wilde, Radclyffe Hall and Quentin Crisp. It borders Bloomsbury – home to the famous “Bloomsbury Set” of writers, painters and thinkers in the early 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. 

Discover some of the better and lesser-known queer locations of these bustling parts of the Big Smoke, including Soho Square, Gordon Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Old Compton Street (AKA Queer Street), while hearing scintillating stories of sexuality and gender identity in London through the ages.

From the creation of ‘The Buggerie Act’ in turbulent Tudor times to 20th century music and drug culture, a very Victorian scandal (involving royalty no less!), the sexual antics of the Bloomsbury Set, what 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys had to say on the subject of sodomy, and just how a BBC newsreader found himself sitting on a lesbian in 1987.

This talk gives a flavour of the highs, and the lows faced daily by LGBTQ people in London through time, and promises tales of love and lust, deceit and debauchery, masochism and… Mozart!

The talk can be tailored to include specific areas or people as required. Please get in touch to discuss your needs.

Live like a Queen: A look at Britain’s queer stately homes

30 mins / 1 hour

A look at the grand palaces and stately homes that have been the settings for queer love as well as those that have inspired the fantastical imaginations of film makers across the decades.

From novels, to films, romance among the roses, and bust-ups in the bedchamber, stately homes around the UK have been the setting for queer love and heartbreak for hundreds of years. We go upstairs and downstairs as well as outside into the bushes, to look for queer love in some of the most glamourous residential buildings in England. 

Some of the amazing locations you will see are: 

• Knole was the ancestral home of Vita Sackville-West, which inspired Virginia Wolfe’s novel Orlando. The property is where the original, fragile manuscript is kept today.

• Sissinghurst Castle is where Vita Sackville-West made her home. Her beautifully designed gardens, while a source of inspiration for English gardens across the country, were first designed by her with same-sex romantic dalliances in mind.

• Kensington Palace is the current home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their young family. It was once home to Queen Anne, played by Olivia Colman in 2018 movie ‘The Favourite’. Its corridors echo with the turbulent relationships between the queen and her ‘favourites’.

• Shibden Hall is the focus of the BBC drama series written by Sally Wainwright, 'Gentleman Jack' starring Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle. Within a stone’s throw is also the church where Anne Lister and Ann Walker married. 

• Madresfield Court has belonged to the Lygon family since the 12th century. It was home to William Lygon, 7th Lord Beauchamp, who had a penchant for youthful, rosy-cheeked footmen. His son Hugh was also the inspiration for Sebastian Flyte, in the iconic ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh.

• Castle Howard was catapulted into the public eye in the 1980s, when it was used as the setting for the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. It is still synonymous with the well-loved novel and in 2008 reprised its role in the big screen adaptation. 

London’s LGBTQ+ Theatreland

30 mins / 1 hour

With a history dating back 350 years to the bawdy times of royal courtesan Nell Gwynn, the West End is the bustling theatreland of London. It represents the highest level of British commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Over the years it has played host to more than its fair share of queer stars such as Oscar Wilde, Sir Ian McKellen and the largely forgotten Maud Allan. 

Hear the fascinating story of outlandish Canadian lesbian Maud Allan. She rose to stardom in London, attracting attention worldwide for her skimpy outfits and provocative dance moves. Her story features cameos by the notorious Oscar Wilde and his one-time lover Lord Alfred Douglas, and culminates in a huge public scandal involving German spies and the location of the clitoris…

We will also take a deep dive into early British drag on stage, looking at one of the first - and youngest - ‘drag kings’, Vesta Tilley. She rose to become England’s highest earning woman! We also take a look under the skirts of notorious ‘drag queens’ Fanny and Stella, who were whisked off by the police one night after a particularly raucous show at the Strand Theatre. The ensuing trial of ‘The Funny He-She Ladies” astonished and exhilarated the Victorian public. 

When Sir John Gielgud donned his special 'cruising cap' you knew he was ready for some series play. With his discreet disguise on, he would frequent the lavatories of the London seeking a standing ovation, until one day he was arrested by a 'pretty policeman'. While this was not the limelight he wanted, Gielgud's fall and rise again is an extraordinary example of the draconian and homophobic laws that were in place, and the masks people had to wear to conceal their private lives and desires.

Waiting in the wings of some of the greatest shows of the 20th century was theatre designer Oliver Messel. With an eye for the extravagant and a flair for beautiful design, beyond the stage he was also a prolific architect. In fact you may have recently seen Helena Bonham Carter ruffling feathers in The Crown as Princess Margaret while taking a royal holiday in the refined villa Les Jolies Eaux in the Caribbean, which was built by Messell especially for Her Royal Highness.

Queer Music from Schubert to Sylvester

30 mins / 1 hour

Join Nick Collinson and Dan Vo as they create a Billboard style countdown of the best in queer music from across time. Yes, it’s going to be controversial as dare to decide who takes the crown: will Elton John come out on top (tee hee) or will Freddie Mercury out-Queen him? Will David Bowie win by putting in a call to Major Tom (who doesn’t like a man in uniform), or will Sylvester conquer them all by getting mighty real.

Our musical countdown will survey queer music across all time, so we will look at composers from the classical world too. Schubert is a shoe-in, and we’ll tell the tragic tale of Tchaikovsky, and delve into bisexual Chopin’s chopping and changing between lovers, we hope that’s all not too hot to Handel!

We’ll take a diversion into iconic black women who have shaped the queer music world too with Ma Rainey (we can’t resist a story that culminates with a lesbian orgy), the Empress of the Blues Bessie Smith will get us swinging (in more ways than one) into the 30s Swing Era, and what respectable lesbian doesn’t have a Tracy Chapman record in their collection?

Finally, just to prove that we’re hip and with it, we’ll also include a few contemporary performers too like Kim Petras and Chris from Christine and the Queens.

Michelangelo and Leonardo – the first modern gays?

1 hour

Join us for an exciting in-depth analysis of the complex sexual identity of these two renaissance giants - creators of some of the most beautiful art in the world. 

Michelangelo Buonarotti and Leonardo Da Vinci are arguably the most famous artists of all time. We all know the Mona Lisa and the statue of David, but what is less known is that both men only ever had male lovers. While same sex love has existed since pre-history, homosexuality is a social construct of the last few hundred years. Were Michelangelo and Leonardo among the earliest ‘homosexuals’?

• We examine the time and place in which they lived - The Italian Renaissance. Did you know that at the end of the 1400s, half (yes, half!) of the male population of Florence had come to the attention of the law for suspicion of sodomy before the age of 30?

• We look at the influence of classical Greek ideals on the development of these artists personas and contrast it with the Catholic ideals of the time, investigating how this interplay affected their art. 

• We scrutinize what little we know about the private lives and loves of these virtuosos, including their liaisons with men several decades their junior, and consider this in the context of the period.

• We inspect the artworks they have left behind, and see what clues (if any) can be garnered from these, including a look at the role of androgyny in the perception of beauty, and how it influenced the art of these two craftsmen in totally different ways.

• And finally we consider the tampering of evidence, subsequent psychosexual analysis, and recent media portrayals, and consider how this has influenced our perception of them as individuals, on renaissance art, and artists as a whole.

This talk promises to transport you back in time to the High Renaissance, where we can peer deep into the psyches of these most memorable of artists, and aim to discover what made them tick...