25 Years Of LGBT+ Housing & Policing

The Living London project was completed from 2009-2011, as a joint project between Galop and Stonewall Housing, with support from LGBT History Month, and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The project was inspired by the recent 25th birthdays of both organisations, which led to a desire to find a way to preserve an important part of the LGBT community’s history.

We formed a partnership, and recruited a wide range of volunteers, who were provided with training in oral history and archiving techniques. We used our won contacts, and wide-ranging advertising to seek people who had been involved with either organisation over their lifetimes. Eventually, we were lucky enough to find 38 people who were willing to share their personal stories – people who has worked for, volunteers for, been clients of, or been connected with one or both of the organisations. Through these stories we reveal a rich and previously untold story of changes which were central to the lives of LGBT Londoners.

As part of the project, Galop and Stonewall Housing have placed our archive material, and recordings of the interviews in the Hall Carpenter Archive – where they are available for further study and interpretation.

Please explore the website to read and hear more:

• In the ‘oral histories’ section, you can listen to clips of the interviews arranged across different themes, to help you compare different people’s experiences
• The ‘timeline’ section contains an interactive timeline, listing key events in the histories of Galop and Stonewall Housing, set in the context of the important dates for LGBT history. Items on the timeline can be opened, where archive documents are available as PDFs.
• The full interviews section includes the full interview with each participant, as well as the downloadable transcripts of the interviews, available to researchers for their own work in this area.

Travelling display

As part of the project we have developed a travelling display, which highlights some of the findings of the project, and is available to borrow for organisations. The exhibition includes 4 portable stands, and a leaflet rack with booklets featuring interview extracts, for visitors to take away.

If you are interested in borrowing the exhibition, for example, as part of your LGBT History Month activities, please contact Galop to arrange this: info@galop.org.uk.

This website is dedicated to the memory of Griff Vaughn Williams who sadly died in 2011 and whose interview is on this website. Griff dedicated his life to fighting for LGBT rights, particularly in the area of policing and crime and his unique contribution will be fondly missed by many.

This project couldn’t have been successful without the generous donation of time and skills from a whole host of people and organisations. We’d therefore like to gratefully acknowledge and thank the following:

The Heritage Lottery Fund for its financial support for the project.

All those who agreed to share their personal memories as interviewees on the website.

Mark Hutin, the project worker who made all this possible.

Members of the project Advisory Committee who helped to shape and support the project:

• Robert Thompson from LAGNA
• Dr Matt Cook from Birkbeck University
• Sue Sanders from Schools Out & LGBT History Month
• Sue Donnelly from the Hall Carpenter Archive at the LSE

The volunteers who undertook with interviews, the project planning and the archiving work:

• Keith Stewart
• Rasheed Rahman
• Olly Zanetti
• Ben Smith
• Philip Cowell
• Martyn Webb
• Susan Hansen
• Gemma Evans
• Fiza Hassan
• Lynda Stepulevage
• Kyle Crossett
• Kate Gallon
• Jasmine Blake