Further research

Here you will be able to learn more about Haringey's LGBT+ history through a mixture of archival material, websites, videos, podcasts and texts, as well as further histories from the interviewees. This page will be updated regularly based on new information I uncover about Haringey's LGBT+ heritage. If there is anything you think should be added here, please get in touch!

Ric and Colin

Colin Ward (far right), Ric Sajor's late partner, is photographed here at a Radio Times event for D-Day veterans in February 2020. Colin was one of the last survivors of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. You can watch a clip of Colin at the event here and read more about the event here. Photograph with permission to use by Ric.

This is one of Ric's favourite photos of Colin, and is Ric's screensaver. Here Colin is sitting at the Hanushka Coffee House in Hastings at his favourite table, where he would write postcards and read the morning paper. Hastings was one of Ric and Colin's regular getaways. Photograph with permission to use by Ric.

Colin was also an artist and you can look at some of his paintings here.

Fraser

Fraser Connell very kindly donated some Haringey LGBT+ memorabilia which he has kept since the 1980s. Take a look at some of his items below:

'Stop The Clause' campaign stickers, c.1987-88

Photograph taken by Fraser at a Stop The Clause protest, c.1987-88

Inside a 'Haringey Stop the Clause' leaflet, c.1987-88. This was a group that Fraser was involved with for a short time after Section 28 became law and he was the contact person.

Extracts from ‘Out of the Clause, Into the Workhouse: A lesbian women’s view of what Clause 28 intends, pretends and promotes, and what we intend to promote against it’ (1988). This was an information booklet published by Wages Due Lesbians, a network of lesbian women which formed in 1975 to campaign for the end of social, economic and legal discrimination against lesbian women.

Videos

News report on protests which erupted in 1986 at a Haringey Council meeting over the debate on whether to introduce positive portrayals of homosexuality in Haringey's schools.

Interview with Booan Temple, one of the women to storm a BBC TV news studio following the introduction of Section 28 in 1988. Her 'Stop The Clause' t-shirt was used in a 2009 Bruce Castle Museum exhibition, From the Closet to the Collection: Haringey LGBT Exhibition.

Haringey Black Action (HBA) demonstration flyer, c.1980s. HBA formed in 1986-87 to oppose attempts to win over Black communities against Positive Images. They organised the first UK demonstration ‘Smash the Backlash’ to highlight the stories of Black lesbians and gay men.
© Haringey Vanguard, Haringey Archive Service, Bruce Castle Museum

Haringey Black Action (HBA) demonstration flyer, c.1980s. In the 1980s, LGBT+ activist groups were using the term 'Black' to encompass Asian and Latin American people as well as African-Caribbean people.
© Haringey Vanguard, Haringey Archive Service, Bruce Castle Museum

Cover of Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin (see Darryl Telles' page for more inf0), © Haringey Archive Service, Bruce Castle Museum

Readings Matters' 'Right To Read' letter, 1988, © Haringey Archive Service, Bruce Castle Museum

Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives

The Bishopsgate Archives hold a very extensive collection of LGBT+ material, including material related to Haringey's LGBT+ history. These include:

The Bob Cant Archive
The Bernie Grant Archive
Take a look at some of their material below (contains some references to homophobia and racism):

Bob Cant at Pride in London 1988, a few months after Section 28 was implemented, © Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives

'What a gay day' article, Weekly Herald, 1984, © LAGNA Archive, Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives

'The problem of being Gay in Haringey' article, Weekly Herald, 1980, © LAGNA Archive, Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives

'Barmy Bernie in 'race and gays' threat', The Sun, 1985, © LAGNA Archive, Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives

You can also find material related to Haringey's LGBT+ heritage at the London Metropolitan Archives, who administered the Haringey Vanguard project along with Bruce Castle Museum.

Podcasts

Queer(y)ing the Past
This is a podcast I created for one of my Public History MA modules. Darryl Telles is interviewed in my first episode exploring the life and legacy of Justin Fashanu, Britain's first openly gay professional footballer:
https://bit.ly/3s1CrJU

Spinning Plates

This is a podcast hosted by singer/songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor. In this episode, she interviews Vince Gillespie's sister, Katherine Gillespie-Sells:

https://play.acast.com/s/spinning-plates/episode33-kathgillespiesells

I have been listening to Ellis-Bextor's music, so you can imagine my surprise and excitement at discovering she knows Katherine through her husband, who is in the band The Feeling with Dan Gillespie-Sells!

Websites

Speak Out London

Speak Out London have created a community oral history project to put LGBT+ lives and experiences back into the historical record. They conducted an interview with Savitri Hensman, a prominent Haringey LGBT+ activist:
https://bit.ly/3lLiN3L

Harringay Online
This article (2011) talks about the Haringey nightclub Bolts (which Fraser Connell and Vince Gillespie both talk about in their interviews):
https://bit.ly/3yBtmdf

Notches Blog

Check out this article written by Bob Cant on Haringey's involvement in LGBT+ rights:
https://bit.ly/3iwuqcK

WiseThoughts
This is a BAME LGBTQI+ arts charity based in Wood Green. The founders, Niranjan Kamatkar and Subodh Rathod, were the first couple to have a same-sex marriage in Haringey.

Also check out pages related to the

Haringey Vanguard project:

Books

We're Queer And We Should Be Here: the pleasures and perils of being a gay football fan
This book by Darryl Telles talks about his experiences as a gay Spurs fan, his involvement in the Gay Footballers Supporters' Network, and his work to advance equality in football.