Queer Tour of Brixton | Herne Hill Overground Station | Sunday 24th October 2021
A guided walking tour, conducted by Ian Townson, concentrating on the radical gay community and gay squats in Brixton from the mid 1970s to 1981, the year of the Brixton uprising.
Ian Townson squatted in Brixton in the 1970s and was a key member of the Brixton Faeries theatre group who created plays and street theatre about their experiences. Townson’s archive relating to this period is now held at Bishopsgate Institute’s Special Collections and Archives.
In the 1970s Britain was saturated in political activity right across the board. Not just in the Labour movement, trade unions and the Left but also the new social movements were particularly active in challenging the oppressive established order especially the black, women's and gay liberation movements. The environmental, countercultural, squatters' and claimants' organisations were also fully engaged in defending people against poverty, homelessness, the destruction of the environment and experimenting with 'alternative' lifestyles. Throughout this period the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-Nazi League and Troops out of Ireland challenged the racist regime in South Africa, the growing menace of racism and fascism and the continuing military occupation of the North of Ireland against Irish freedom. In the early 70s there were still lively anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. Much of this 'crucible' of radical activity provided the ingredients for how politics were practised locally in Brixton, especially the birth of the Gay Liberation Front in 1970.
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This event is part of 'Communal Curriculum' a public programme of research which is part of the devising process for On Railton Road, a play devised by Ian Giles and the Brixton Pansies, based on a script by Louis Rembges, Brixton Faeries and collected writings.
Supported by Jerwood New Work Fund & Arts Council England
https://www.onrailtonroad.com/