In this episode, we consider the rise and fall of an illegal 1930s LGBTQ+ club in the heart of London.
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Basement
,
81 Endell Street
,
London
The Caravan Club
Written by
Hamish
Roberts
Performed by
Stephen
Fry
Delve Deeper
The British Newspaper Archive has an article about the Caravan Club.
About this story
Writer Hamish Roberts imagines an LGBTQ+ man discovering a place, the Caravan Club, where he can be himself in 1934 London, when being gay is illegal.
Magistrate's Court
,
Bow Street
,
London
Hiding in Plain Sight
Written by
Hamish
Roberts
Performed by
Stephen
Fry
Delve Deeper
Wikipedia has a copy of a photograph, printed in the Daily Mirror, of Bow Street crowded with market people during the Caravan Club Hearings.
About this story
Inspired by a newspaper photograph of the Covent Garden crowds gathered in Bow Street for Caravan Club hearings, we consider what those onlookers might be thinking about the scores of LGBTQ+ people attending court that day.
Cyril’s Fragments
Written by
Hamish
Roberts
Performed by
Stephen
Fry
Delve Deeper
The National Archives has a podcast, and its transcript, relating to Cyril’s letter.
About this story
LGBTQ+ love letters, and fragments thereof, discovered in the raid on the Caravan Club in 1934 and used against the author, Cyril Coeur de Leon during his trial at the Old Bailey.
