Pride of Place: LGBTQ landmarks listed to mark the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality

Historic spots that have been newly listed or upgraded marking their LGBTQ significance include an artists' retreat on the Devon coast and the execution site of Edward II's supposed lover. 

A coastal artists’ retreat and a chapel with a suffragette-made stained glass window are among buildings listed to mark the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Historic England has also re-listed 14 places in light of their newly discovered significance to LGBTQ history as part of its Pride of Place project, a partnership with Leeds Beckett University's Centre for Culture, which aims to reveal the UK’s previously untold queer history.

“Many of the places listed were homes – safe havens for people in the LGBTQ community – making it all the more important that they are recognised on the National Heritage List for England,” said Deborah Williams, Historic England’s Listing Team Leader for the West.

The Cabin, a 19th century fisherman’s store sitting on a cliff above Bideford Bay in Devon, has been given a new Grade II listing.

What is the Sexual Offences Act?

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 permitted homosexual acts between two men over the age of 21 in private in England and Wales.

The reform was only extended to Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982.

Restrictions remained and it was many years before homosexuality was fully decriminalised in Britain. 

It was the studio and summer cottage of artists Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards from 1924. It remains unchanged since Judith’s death in 1971 when Mary Stella closed the cabin.

Also in Devon, the Chapel of St Anne in Saunton has a stained glass window created in 1906 by the artist Mary Lowndes, best known for her suffragette posters and banners.

LGBTQ landmarks listed by Historic England

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Lowndes was a successful, independent entrepreneur, living in London with her partner, fellow suffragette Barbara Forbes.

Poster girl: Mary Lowndes, the artist behind some of the stained glass windows at the Chapel of St Anne was most famous for her suffragette posters.

London spots that have been re-listed acknowledging their LGBTQ history include the grave of leading military surgeon Dr James Barry (1795-1865) in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Barry carried out an early Caesarean section in Cape Town in 1826 where both mother and baby survived – an operation not performed in Britain until 1833. It was only discovered that Barry was biologically female at birth when he died in 1865.

The Camden home of the French poets and lovers Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud in 1873 and the infamous Islington home of author and playwright Joe Orton and his partner, Kenneth Halliwell in the Sixties also make the list.

Further re-listings include the West Sussex home of painter Hannah Gluckstein, known as Gluck, and her partner, journalist Edith Shackleton Heald, from 1944 to 1978; Gaveston’s Cross in Warwickshire, site of the execution of Piers Gaveston, believed to be the lover of Edward II, in 1312; and Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, whose most famous inhabitant, Vita Sackville-West, is well known for her affairs with women including Virginia Woolf, throughout her marriage to author Harold Nicholson.

Re-listed: the West Sussex home of the artist Gluck
Nigel Purdey

Sackville-West and Woolf visited the Priest’s House, also in Kent, where Edith Craig, a successful theatre producer, director and costumier, lived in a ménage à trois with her female partners Chris St John and Tony Atwood.

“England has a rich and colourful history and yet there’s a gap when it comes to recording our LGBTQ heritage. That’s why we want to uncover and share the untold stories of these buildings and places. They have a rightful place in our nation’s history,” said Deborah Williams.

“Anybody who wants to should be able to get a glimpse into the lives of the remarkable people who lived, worked in and visited them – to understand their achievements and the challenges they faced decades and even centuries ago."

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