London's Gayest Neighborhoods Virtual tour: Bloomsbury & Queer Soho

Take a walk on the wild side as master guide Nick Collinson takes you on 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, Francis Bacon and Quentin Crisp. It borders Bloomsbury, which was 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 normally bustling parts of the Big Smoke, including Soho 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, you'll hear about 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.

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!

More about our speaker:

Nick Collinson works for the English Heritage Trust as part of the interpretation team, bringing history to life at over 400 properties including Stonehenge, Kenwood House, Hadrian's Wall and Whitby Abbey. He formed the English Heritage 'Queer History Hive' of like-minded individuals looking to increase LGBTQ+ representation across the portfolio. He masterminded English Heritage's first queer event - Queer Walls at Eltham Palace last year (sadly not running this year but will be back next year), and has just completed a project on Aelred - the 'gay saint (?)' of Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, sadly also currently postponed.

Nick also runs his own London tour business - The Urban Rambler - where he leads tours of the capital for private groups. He has most recently worked with the Museum of London, where he contributed to a series on the Lost Rivers of London, and a new walk to highlight the queer history of Vauxhall in south-west London.