23 June – Queer History of Bankside

  • Date Thursday, 23 June 2022
  • Time 12:30pm 1:30pm
  • Address Better Bankside Space, 18 Great Guildford Street, London, SE1 0FD
Register using password: Bankside

Join Mr Londoner, aka blue badge tour guide Antony Robbins, in exploring and celebrating Bankside’s chaotic and bawdy history. You’ll discover what the ‘Liberty of the Clink’ was and how the area, especially from the 12th century, became a place of outsiders and experimenters. These counter-culture figures are remembered today at the Shrine of the Outcast Dead at the Crossbones graveyard.

Discover the inns, taverns, brothels and theatres that were a showcase of gender-fluidity and how drag queens were invented in Bankside’s Elizabethan theatres.

Find out how Bankside invented having ‘goose bumps’ and how Shakespeare himself was most likely bisexual, exploring some of those themes in his plays and sonnets.

This event is part of Better Bankside’s celebration of Pride and the LGBTQ+ community of Bankside.

14 May 2026
14 May - Create your own mini terrarium
14 May 2026
14 May - Stress and communication at work: Turning awareness into action
19 May 2026
19 May - Transitioning to be a Leader
20 May 2026
20 May - How to conduct a great mid-year conversation