In 1967 the  UK Government passed the  Sexual Offences Act, which legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, on the condition that they were consensual, in private and between two men who had attained the age of 21 (It took Scotland another 13 years to catch up and even worse, 15 years for Northern Ireland).  The reason that the law specifically named gay men was that lesbian relationships were never explicitly criminalized in the UK….. rumor has it that Queen Victoria had refused to accept that women would ever do such a thing!

Its not as though this signalled the start of gay life in London, as that had been going on for centuries, including bars like The Admiral Duncan in Soho that opened in 1839 (and was bombed in  April 1999 by Neo-Nazi David Copeland.)   Or The Coleherne in Earls Court, which opened 1866 and then turned gay in  the 1950s.’

In South London, the center of queer life then (and now) was The Royal Vauxhall Tavern (known as the RVT), which was built between 1860 and 1862 at Spring Gardens, Kennington Lane, on land which was originally part of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. After the Second World War, returning servicemen and local gay men were reportedly attracted to the venue, which held shows by female impersonators (drag shows).

In 1969, director Charles Squires took his cameras to the RVT to make a TV Special  ‘What’s A Girl Like You’, filming the drag stars playing to the packed crowds.  We can only imagine how groundbreaking  (and alien) that must have appeared to ‘regular’ English families watching at home watching.  Squires filmed a crop of drag queens miming to the latest pop songs while manically rushing up and down on top of the kidney-shaped, somehow missing the bar staff stilling pulung pints of beer. 

It was all very gay, especially when the commentator who was describing one of the acts  ‘Lee is a lorry driver, and John works in an office. The one thing you didn’t have to be a drag queen is being homosexual !”

The second half of the program takes on a whole different tone when it visits drag queens performing in the North of England.  The venues are usually Working Men’s Clubs where the audiences are overwhelmingly both working class and straight. They love all the acts, but the main difference is that they are laughing at them and not with them, as with gay audiences.  There is a slightly freak-show edge to it all, with one of the drag queens on hormpnes to get breasts just for her strip-teasing routine, and another is a transgender singer who is never made to feel that comfortable.

Squires interviews are a great addition to this compelling piece of UK queer history, which is a sharp reminder of the shocking fashion we wore back then, and also how much we smoked.  Let alone the fact of how we did our hair!  LOL!