In the 1920s and 1930s queer clubs & spaces were vulnerable to police raids.
Makeup was seen as a sign of effeminacy & therefore homosexuality.
Police would use blotting paper to test for powder & rouge.
📷: CRIM 1/1041
At the LGBTQ+ friendly Caravan Club, described in the 1930s as ‘London’s greatest bohemian rendezvous’, patrons regularly wore make up.
📷: MEPO 3/758 & DPP 2/224
During a raid of the private members club in 1934, a particularly flamboyant and bold individual, Cyril, had to undergo the humiliating process of having his face tested for evidence of make-up with blotting paper.
📷: WO195/15751
Billie’s Club, located on 6 Little Denmark Street (now Flitcroft Street), opened in 1935.
The scene that the police witnessed was described as:
the type of dancing which went on was thoroughly disgusting…With one exception all the men were powdered and rouged
📷: CRIM 1/903
Not only were the individuals perceived to be wearing makeup, but it was noted that 'their hair was waved or dyed’ with one individual highlighted as having pink nails.
In this era police observations consistently related ‘effeminacy’ as a sign of homosexuality.
📷: DPP 2/355
Rare material evidence of this practice survives in our collections; a piece of blotting paper smeared with make-up.
This was taken from the face of 44 year old waiter Knox.
📷: CRIM 1/1041
Knox was arrested in Piccadilly for soliciting men in the street – his face ‘highly coloured and his lips red,’ according to the officer – and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
The majority of records relating to sex work in the archives are about female sex workers; however, there have also always been men who have sold sex, predominantly to other men.
📷: MEPO 3/2136
Men engaged historically in sex work faced a double stigma. Both homosexuality and sex work were controversial in their own right.
Despite this, reports of male sex work and male brothels had been longstanding and, at times, prominent in the public eye.
In 1889, the Cleveland Street scandal took place, when a male brothel run by Charles Hammond on Cleveland Street, London, was discovered by police.
The case prompted a very public scandal and received significant press attention.
Watching @EmmaRaducanu win her maiden Grand Slam title last night reminded us of another women's tennis champion, Lottie Dod.
Much like Emma, Lottie also achieved success at an incredibly young age. She was just 15 when she won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles championship in 1887
Lottie remains the youngest ever ladies Wimbledon champion and apparently spent much of her career playing tennis in a metal-and-whalebone corset while on court.
Ouch!
Lottie's talents extended beyond tennis and she also won awards in golf, hockey and archery.
In fact she even made it in to the Guinness Book of Records as the most versatile female athlete of all time (along with Babe Zaharias).
These flyers and pamphlets were produced by the Central Office of Information in the 1960s as part of a campaign to reduce drink driving. #COI75#CollectionsUnited
They focused particularly on the Christmas period when numbers of alcohol-related road accidents were particularly high.
The pamphlet 'Less Drink than You Think Means Danger on the Roads' states:
'All drivers with more than a certain amount of alcohol in the blood are much more likely to have accidents. This is true whatever their age, experience, or drinking habits.'
Lesbian identities are often difficult to uncover in the archive.
Unlike male homosexuality, sexual relationships between women were never criminalised, which led to less visibility. But their stories and experiences are awaiting discovery.
Our collection holds rich material relating to same sex relationships between women.
To celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week, we thought we'd highlight some of our key records.
The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, were two upper-class Irish women who lived together in Wales, whose scandalous relationship attracted attention during the late 18th and early 19th century.