Polka Dots and Chequered Slacks.
Hunky Dory in Brick Lane Picture:Mike Butler
At the top end of Brick Lane near the junction of Bethnal Green Road sits Hunky Dory, a shop that sells vintage clothing mainly from the 60s and 70s. The clothes from that era, men’s and women’s, are bright, colourful and sometimes hugely florid, and for some reason, to me and many others, highly attractive.
The shop is the lifetime work of Ian Bodenham and his, now retired from the business, husband who also called Ian. Both developed an interest in vintage clothing and by Ian Bodenham's admittance it began something of an accidental journey.
The story, however, does not start in Brick Lane. It starts over forty years ago in Brixton Market. Ian Bodenham says, ‘both me and Ian had an interest in vintage clothing, what was then from the 30s, 40s and maybe the fifties. Ian’s sister, Heather, had a stall in Brixton Market, so one day we joined her to sell the bits we did not want.'
From that small beginning a business organically grew, the market stall blossomed. ’We found we were selling to dealers, including people like Hackett who started off doing vintage clothes, so we decided to start trading at other markets in London’. Soon enough they were trading at the markets at Camden, Portobello Road, and Covent Garden. This lasted two almost three years.
The two Ian‘s were then keen to get a shop around 89/90, a drop in property prices led to landlords being desperate to rent. After a temporary share with another retailer, they found a landlord that was happy to rent out with the funds they had. The landlord also had an interest in eclectic businesses that meant that he was always looking for something different rather than obviously profitable.
They rigged out the shop as cheaply as possible, having little capital and so began their shop ‘The Observatory’. It was to be a very successful venture when vintage was not so much in fashion as it is today, the shop lasted for 19 years.
When the original landlord moved on, and a hospital trust then took over owning large proportions of the area. A Sunday market that sat on waste ground for around 12-15 years was then developed as part of the University of Greenwich. The closure of a market leads to a drop off in popularity. This led to trade dropping and rents rising and Ian’s husband, the other Ian, then felt the time was right to move on. Ian gives him credit, ’he was right!’
Interest in the East End was rising, and both Ian’s checked out the Brick Lane area and found and moved the business to what is now Hunky Dory back in 2008. Ian states, 'this will be our final outlet. It has had its ups and downs, down to the economic climate, and is also down to the popularity of what we sell. The last five years or so due to the interest in sustainability we have accidently benefitted, as by definition what we do is recycling.’
In relation to the regeneration of the Brick Lane area Ian Bodenham says, ‘It begins with the artists needing cheap premises for gallery space, this then brings in others, small bars, eateries and other small businesses.’ This means that the regeneration remains organic, unlike the recent Kings Cross redevelopment which was a one size fits all major chain development with everything from Starbucks to Sports Direct. Ian again, ‘The shops and premises along here are too small for major chains, this may also put off further development. ‘
Ian feels very lucky, they had little or no business training and, they both wanted to create their own world, not wanting to work in offices. Ian says, ’Over the last 35 years they have worked with many fantastic people, who still remain in touch like an extended family.’
In terms of the future, Ian will be here in Brick Lane for a while yet, and along with Brick Lane Bookshop, Freedom Press, the small vintage and thrift markets and of course Hunky Dory itself make Brick Lane a superb place to visit on a warm spring Saturday or Sunday (when the market itself is there). Just a little hint, it’s quieter in the week.
Ian Bodenham with some of his stock. Image: Mike Butler
Hunky Dory. Busy with shoppers
Picture: Mike Butler
Inside Hunky Dory Image: Mike Butler
Industry Interview: Peter Parker
Peter Parker Image: Mike Butler
Just a decade after the legalisation of male homosexuality in 1967 Peter Parker, then a young, aspiring, English Literature student at University College London decided to turn what others at the time would have seen as a disadvantage into a saleable advantage to build a career.
In his words, ‘I was intentionally looking to start a literary career in journalism and thought why not take advantage of being gay, I used to take Gay News into school, I waved it around and made a nuisance of myself!’
His journalism career began when he noticed that a book that had interested him had not been reviewed by Gay News (Andrew Birkin’s- JM Barrie and the Lost Boys). He then approached the literary editor of the paper and Cambridge University lecturer Alison Hennegan, who agreed to publish his review and from there he became a regular contributor and columnist.
In regard to the Gay News newspaper of that era he says, ‘we were always getting ourselves into trouble.’ This is reflected by the fact that in 1976 Mary Whitehouse was able to take the paper to court in the UK’s last successful blasphemy trial. Parker continued to work for Gay News until it’s closure in April 1983.
Parker continues, ‘my first published work after that was for the London magazine on E M Forster’s Selected Letters, you see a pattern emerging here. Most of my books have a pretty strong queer element one way or another, except for my book on Botanical Latin, which is the least queer book I have written.’
When Gays the Word was raided in April 1984. Parker was also asked to provide a defence for the Victorian homo-erotic novel Teleny, anonymous in terms of its author, but attributed to Oscar Wilde, Parker says,’ as a literary work it is difficult to defend, but as a work of great historical interest it is different.’
An alumnus of Canford School in Dorset along with Derek Jarman (artist, film maker and gay rights activist, creator of the punk film Jubilee in 1978) and Alan Hollinghurst (gay writer, author and Booker prize winner-The Line of Beauty in 2004). Referring to them he joked in our interview that, ‘there may have been something in water’.
In 1974 he attended University College London (UCL) as undergraduate in English Literature. Attending the Fresher’s fair, he found the Gay Societies bookstall and from there he became a volunteer for the London Gay Switchboard. It was at UCL where he met, as lecturers, Stephen Spender and then Peter Goulden, who were both themselves gay.
Parker continues. ‘It was whilst at University I had a wonderful tutor Dan Jacobson, a South African, for whom I had to write various essays. One compared the ideals of WW1 with the ideals one got in school stories. He felt that I may be onto something and that became my first book. (The Old Lie: The Great War and the Public School Ethos, 1987).
Peter Parker, now 70, (Born Herefordshire on 4 June 1954) he has become a writer and journalist that people would go to for comment, analysis and to write on a given subject where homosexuality was a theme or thread through the story.
He is credited with writing the definitive biography of the Anglo-American writer Christpher Isherwood in 2004 (Isherwood). He has gone on to contribute articles to, amongst others, The Listener, The Independent, The Telegraph, the Sunday Times and the Oldie.
It is this that led Penguin books to approach him to ask could he write a book around the gay characters that lived in Soho and Fitzrovia. His research uncovered far more than just that small area of London and came up with some fascinating stories leading to the project expanding into the two-volume set, Some Men in London.
In Some Men in London Parker is forthright about his hope that some people will be offended by the language and tone used by some of the commentators. He brings special attention to some of the comments made by the judiciary, members of both Houses of Parliament, the police, health professionals, with special mentions for psychiatrists and social workers of the time. Use of some of the wording today would lead to deplatforming and cancelation and not without reason.
This leads Parker on to comment on why he thinks the books are important. He feels young gay people today have rights, to marriage, adoption, and to not be discriminated against, yet know little or nothing as to how it all started.
The fact that the government of the day refused to even discuss the details of the Wolfenden Report when it first came out led to A. E. (Tony) Dyson and Andrew Halliday-Smith forming the Homosexual Law Reform Society in 1958. Dyson and Halliday-Smith were said to be inspired by the suicide of a fellow undergraduate student because of being gay or something that happened because he was gay.
They campaigned by promoting pamphlets and engaging with the great and the good via letters in the Times and the Telegraph politely asking that people raise the issue with their MPs. They also managed to get many famous people to sign their petitions that were then forwarded to MPS and Parliament.
The fact that they were successful in winning the debate and partially successful in getting the law changed was a credit. The change, however, only applied to England and Wales and not at all for the Armed Forces. Scotland had to wait until 1981, Northern Ireland 1982. The ban on homosexuality in the British Military was not lifted until January 2000.
It is Parker’s contention that from this we then progress to the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) of the 1960’s, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the politically motivated Gay Pride marches of the 1980’s that have now become a commercial Pride celebration.
From this may have come a complacency that means young gay people no longer feel the need to protest as they did in the past, but they still need to be aware of what can happen if they become too complacent.
Complacency is far from something one could lay at the feet of Peter Parker. From the schoolboy waving his Gay News in defiance. The early journalist making his way by turning what some saw as negative into a credible writing career. Now, with the 70-year-old taking his books on tour to tell the stories of the queer pioneers of post-World War London Peter Parker is a force of nature!
LGBTQ+, History and Kink meet in City Archives
The Bishopsgate Institute in the City of London, near Liverpool Street Station. Image: Mike Butler.
On the hottest day of the year in the summer of 2022, with the temperature inside what was Backstreet in Mile End hitting 40 degrees, Stef Dickers, curator of the LGBTQI+ archive at the Bishopsgate Institute was rushing to get out as much memorabilia as possible.
London’s by then oldest and only remaining gay leather bar had closed. Steph said, ‘I had been told the bar was closing by a number of people at the time, but out of respect to those that ran the bar and the staff losing their jobs I held back until they needed me.’
Stef added. ’I was given three hours to get what we could. We unscrewed the cage from the floor, I asked for the handpumps from the bar, and we took four pairs of boots out of a collection of 400, as well as anything else that could be added to both the ’kink’ and the LGBTQI+ archive.‘
For those that do not know, ‘kink’ is best defined by Madonna in her version of the song ‘Hanky Panky’. Leather on the gay scene is considered a ‘kink’. The kink archive at Bishopsgate includes the Peter Freeman collection of erotic fiction works on themes of spanking, corporal punishment and fetish (think anything from strawberry jam and cream to cages, whips and chains ...).
The thought of the normally laid back, jocular Stef huffing and puffing, straining to get as much of the former venue out as possible in a rush and heavily overheated goes against the cool laid back character that I know, sitting in front of me casually dressed in a cap, open necked shirt, and jeans, grinning, as he relates the story.
The archives include items that tell the working history of the common people of London through to an extensive collection of LGBTQI+ paraphernalia to the latest additions to the kink archive that was first started by Stef in 2016.
The Institute itself opened in 1895 using charitable funds that the church across the road, St Botolph’s, had accrued over the previous 500 years. On discovering this sum existed, the then vicar of St Botolph’s, William Rogers, a social reformer, set the Institute up as a working peoples’ cultural institute with adult education centre. With concerts and a library to develop the skills of the working poor of the immediate area.
His successor Charles William Frederick Goss (1864-1946) was more confident, energetic, and fully committed to democratic learning principles. He understood the value of informal adult education to working people from non-privileged backgrounds. He had grown up the son of a plasterer in a crowded and chaotic South London home. He left school at thirteen to work as an office boy, a job that eventually led to him becoming a librarian and to his post at the Institute.
He also began collecting materials on the history of trade unionism and the early labour movement, including the library of the Victorian radical activist and politician George Howell who had collected an important library of books, pamphlets, trade union reports and papers that remains part of the library today.
Goss was determined that the records of working people who fought to obtain a more democratic and just society in the nineteenth century would be preserved for future generations.
The Institute continued in this fashion until Stef Dickers claims responsibility for first launching the LGBTQ+ archive on his arrival at the Institute in 2001. Stef had previously worked on the archives of the London School of Economics (LSE) and had built up considerable amounts of archive material including items relevant to the LGBTQ+ community that could not remain at the LSE
Stef Dickers, Curator and Manager of the archives. Picture: Mike Butler
The Kink/BDSM archive began in 2016 when Stef was offered a collection of rubber, kink and fetish gear from a stranger based in Birmingham who was downsizing. Stef had no prior knowledge of the man or his collection, and was swept away by the significance, extent and organisation of the collection. Immediately, he agreed to add it to the archive at the Institute.
This now forms a central part of the LGBTQ+ archive that holds records covering subjects as diverse as, London history, protests and campaigning, feminist and women's history, Labour and socialist history.
Stef insists on making the archive as accessible as possible, there are no restrictions on who can go and look at items in the archives and he goes on to say that ‘everyone's history is important, everyone’s voices should be heard’ There are minority voices in the archive, with current work on Club Kali oral histories about the Southeast Asian LGBTQ+ scene in London. Work around tattoos, who gets what tattoo and why, what do those tattoos mean to the people getting them.
Stef said ‘’Then we’d get bits of gear (clothing) as well, like jackets, and that expanded it out and we got a few bits from Dykes on Bikes and SM Dykes – I felt that we should let everyone in!’ This also means collecting stories from Pride and other marches and protests from the 1970s onward, such as anti-Clause 28 through to the Pits and Perverts support of the striking miners in 1985.
Collecting the diaries of ordinary people. Keeping records of the Trades Union and Labour movements of the present day. There are many examples of radical activism and campaigning that bear witness to working class struggles.
The photographic archives contain over 500,000 images, with over 150,000 books, pamphlets and maps of London, and hundreds of thousands of press cuttings as well as emphera including banners, badges and club flyers helps add colour to this extensive resource.
This goes along with the original mission statement of the Institute. ‘Our mission is to provide welcoming and inspiring spaces for people with a thirst for knowledge to learn and flourish. Through our library, historic collections, courses and cultural events, we enrich, entertain and stimulate independent thought in a vibrant city environment.’
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London march against Section 28 Image: The Bishopsgate Institute
Opinion: Labour are getting more right than wrong.
Starmer, Reeves and Rayner Imaget: Wikipedia Commons
5th July 2024 and Labour have won the biggest landslide majority in their history. The reasons given were, the Conservative vote had collapsed, the Liberal Democrats had risen from the grave dug for them by Nick Clegg, and Reform had stolen some of the Tory vote as the right wing of the party deserted a sinking ship.
Kier Starmer had stolen Downing Street because of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak’s inability to get anything right, or right wing enough, and now the country had fallen to ‘the communists’. We were going to go woke and go broke in weeks! Jeremy Corbyn had retained Islington and Diane Abbot was organising a lesbian co-operative take-over of the UK education system.
I will ‘fess up straight away, I could not in a million years vote for Starmer and was not happy with the idea of turncoat Wes Streeting being health secretary. I had joined the Labour party BECAUSE Jeremy Corbyn had become leader, and I thought might just be able to undo the years of dereliction caused by the dreaded Margaret Thatcher. I left the Labour after they knifed Corbyn in 2019.
Am I happy with the current government? No! Do I like the current government? No! Would I take part in overthrowing the current government? No! I am happy to give Starmer and his frankly feckless frontbench a little longer to wake up and smell the brown stuff to check if it is coffee.
The main reason is everyone has calmed down somewhat from the frenzied headlines around Boris, then Truss, then everyone almost having a complete breakdown as Sunak failed, and failed, and failed again to reignite the economy. The second reason is I think Labour are doing rather well considering what they were left with, read on if you do not believe me.
Okay the Mail, the Sun and Telegraph still go off bang once a week over some completely misinterpreted comment by Angela Rayner or another of the empty gas cylinders that claim to be the skulls of certain frontbench spokespeople.
People forget, these newspapers have always had explosive editorials and front-page headlines. It is their nature, but they are back to once a week or so, rather than daily under Sunak. As for the empty gas cylinders, go have a look at any Thatcher cabinet, apart from Keith Joseph they were the worst bunch of yes people the world has ever seen.
As an LGBTQ+ person I am appalled at the lack of progress in terms of a ban on conversion therapy. I am apoplectic about turncoat Streeting swallowing the, at best ill-informed, Cass report and banning much needed medication for trans people.
The claim that they have ‘robbed’ pensioners by removing the winter fuel allowance is probably the worst piece of hyperbole to come out of this so far. Maintaining the triple-lock on pensions means that pensioners have benefitted by £689 this year in increases, slightly more than the £300 average. This at a time when wage rises still have not caught up with price increases, including the costs of getting to work in first place.
Labour have also tried to improve the take up of Pensioners Credit, leading to some of the poorest pensioners not benefiting by £300 a year, but by as much as £4,000 per year. It should be noted that those pensioners that receive Pension Credit will also still get their winter fuel allowance and a free TV licence.
Factor in that estimates put the number of millionaire pensions in London at one in four and around one in five nationally. These people are also all beneficiaries of council house sell offs, cheap or free travel schemes, free prescriptions and various other give aways.
Yes, there will be some that are in poverty for a variety of reasons, but they are not a large number and so far, not even one has been publicised as due to a lack of winter fuel allowance.
Direct intervention by properly funded local authorities and their social and care work teams will find those people, through increased investment by Labour. To find them a balance must be struck, and paying out an arbitrary £300 to every single pensioner regardless of need is not balance.
The policies that Starmer and his team seem to be following come across to me as slow and steady rather than forcing growth, and therefore, one hopes, avoiding boom and bust. This is a credible approach, especially when considering the world’s political and economic situation that seems to be getting more volatile.
The Labour party have had some successes. The Renters Rights bill will remove no fault evictions, letting tenants appeal above market rent increases and making landlords fix hazards quick, other measures in the bill will mean safer and more stable conditions for many in the rental sector. The Tory members of the Lords are trying to delay passage, despite some of these measures being previous Tory government policy.
On Housing Labour have provided extra money for affordable and social housing with more funding in the pipeline. The Employment Rights bill, this will give workers more rights to negotiate pay and conditions. As for the NHS, two million extra appointments have already been delivered. Waiting lists for care, treatment and tests are all down, many to levels not seen since Covid.
Despite the negative publicity around tax, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, has put money into recruiting extra tax inspectors to recover tax from rich people using avoidance loopholes to the extent that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) have revised upwards the money they think the government will recover from rich tax dodgers. This shows efforts to crack down on dodgy tax schemes has worked better than OBR thought back in October.
This list is not exhaustive, more measures have been introduced, on water quality, increases to the minimum wage, more NHS dentistry appointments, efforts to bring more services under government control and real increases to our defence budget.
A few measures may not be initially popular, they may seem to be targeting the wrong people, but on balance it looks like the still less than one year old Labour government is heading in the right direction, all be it more slowly than we, and probably they, had hoped having to contend with the mess left by 14 years of Tory incompetence.
Why Residents Associations Benefit Leaseholders
Parkview Court, Image: Mike Butler
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 became law on 24 May 2024. This in response to huge bills for renovations after the Grenfell Fire. Older people downsizing often find themselves with little choice but to buy small leasehold apartments run by managing agents on behalf of freeholders.
Parkview Court is such a block with 50 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the London Borough of Redbridge. It was built in 1989 to provide flats for people over 60 and as such is managed with older people in mind.
Each flat also comes with 24-hour access to Lifeline in case of emergencies. There is an on-site manager during the day who residents can consult and an active residents’ association.
The block is managed by a company called First Port, an organisation that describes itself on its website as, 'the UK’s leading residential property management specialists, catering to the needs of customers’ homes across England, Wales and Scotland.
Noreen aged 79, decided to ‘downsize’ due to finding housework and gardening difficult, she is also a cancer survivor and takes a pragmatic view that living in Parkside Court is, ‘better in someways and no so good in others.’ She has spent time and money in upgrading her flat in various ways to improve her comfort but needs to get her heating fixed.
Needing to move back to London from Wales to be near family, Sue aged 75, moved back to London to be near her family. She has been organising monthly dinners to bring residents together and would like to see more social activities, citing the diversity of the residents, the transport links, the accessibility of local parks as another benefit of living at Parkview.
Having sold the family house on her mother’s death, Cheryl felt that Parkview offered the best from a selection she had viewed. She would like to see more hands-on management, ‘the current manager has struggled with some of the work and relies too much on the chair of the Residents’ Association’.
One of the longest serving residents, Jimmy moved in over 12 years ago. He is 86, but still gets around, going out daily for meals. ‘I lived in Holland-on-Sea, 300 yards from the sea. My three children live in Chigwell, I worried about them driving to me along the A12. So found this place, it was ideal at just six miles from my children.’
As for social engagement Jimmy said that having family to visit, he did not feel the need to be sociable but says, ‘I come down for the Friday night meals once a month and join in the discussion. We also had a film night here that brought 11-15 people down. That stopped due to covid’.
With the residents were in the main friendly and got along. A little more in the way of social activity would be appreciated. The fact that the Court has an active Residents Association that does take up disputes and issues on behalf and is often successful in resolving them is an important thing.
Chairperson for the Residents Association, Mason aged 60, took the role after when the previous chair stood down, as he was seen as the only person who could do it. Mason explains, ‘we are limited in what we can do, we can object to work being done, but we have limited power over the process. When we want something done it is hard to get them to do it. Concessions have to be surgically extracted, it takes a combination of persistence, logic and sheer bloody-mindedness.’
Mason has an example that could have been very expensive for the individual leaseholders. Replacement costs for double glazing unit had by established precedent were down to the freeholder. The leases were unclear, so the managing agent decided the costs should be met by the leaseholder. After nine months, an emergency general meeting, a petition signed by all residents and the threat of legal action to get the agreed precedent upheld.
Mason goes on to explain that the law requires any freeholders or management companies to engage with any pre-existing Residents Associations on potential costs of any works that are needed on residential properties covered by leasehold. This allows for leaseholders to object to works and to object to costs of works and therefore represents a vital layer of protection.
So far it looks like the Leasehold and Reform Act may not have addressed some of the issues and until test cases hit the leasehold tribunals and courts, we are unlikely to know. One piece of advice stands out, if buying such a flat then the purchaser should check to see if an active Residents Association exists to support them should the need arise.
Parkview Court Garden Image:Mike Butler
Book review: Some Men in London-Peter Parker
Some Men in London: Picture Mike Butler
On VE Day, May 8th 1945, my aunt Floss and her cousin Grace were dancing along with thousands of others in Trafalgar Square. The Nazis were beaten, and freedom had been preserved. Elsewhere another cousin, let us call him Reg, was also celebrating, but there was a tinge of sadness and shame to his reverie as he was unable to celebrate with the man he loved. That could have landed him in prison.
The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 following on from the Wolfenden Report in 1957 only partially solved the problems that men like Reg had.
This drew me to books by Peter Parker entitled ‘Some Men in London’. The two volumes chart and record the immediate post war period from VE day to the passing of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967. Immediately, I ordered both looking forward to reading them with relish. At the same time, I booked myself onto a talk by the editor, compiler and curator of the books, Peter Parker at Shoe Lane library, just off Fleet Street.
The books have been extensively researched, they contain excerpts from plays, court statements, parliamentary accounts, books, films, newspapers and any other media available at that time.
There are accounts of ordinary men, dustmen, soldiers, office workers, civil servants, and actors as well as the great and the good in the Houses of Lords and Commons, members of the aristocracy also get mentioned. None are judged other than by the courts of the era, and not by the editor for their actions, many are arrested for importuning other men for sex.
Some are clearly prostitutes, others simply in search of sexual satisfaction, still some others in the wrong time and place. All are wary of being arrested, of having their names read out in court to then be reported in a very unsympathetic press.
Each snippet or information builds toward the writing and publishing of the Wolfenden report in 1957, a watershed moment, where outright condemnation of homosexuality began to fade into at least a form of sympathy from many people, articles in the press, letters to the editor in the Times or the Telegraph are published here in both volumes showing how public opinion slowly changed and indeed ended out of step with their representatives in both Houses of Parliament.
Indeed, the book shows how it took pressure from many quarters, including a small but growing element of brave souls who were to publicly state their homosexuality and call for change with the formation of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in 1958. The group, who included the publisher Victor Gollancz, poet Stephen Spender, and the Labour MP Kenneth Younger campaigned for a parliamentary debate. Following which they demanded the implementation of the recommendations of the Wolfenden Report published the previous year.
The first volume ends with the bizarre story of a young man being taken to court for offenses against girls, having previously being thought of as homosexual. This led to a psychologist making the bizarre claim that, ‘these offences are at least evidence of a step in the right direction’. This shows how homosexuality was perceived even by the medical profession, much still needed to change at this point where the sexual assault of a woman was seen as better than consensual sex between two men.
The second volume, continuing in the same vein as the first begins where the previous volume left off. It charts the changes in view of public opinion and of increasing pressure from a growing lobby of homosexual men that change must be made. It ends with the passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Allowing sex between two consenting men behind locked doors to take place so long as there is no other person or persons present. If anyone were to complain at what had been seen, or report that this law had been broken, arrests would and did follow, right up to and including changes in the law that were passed in the early 2000’s. It is for this reason it is said that there was only partial decriminalisation for the best part of 40 years.
I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Peter Parker, and he confirms that immediately after the passing of the 1967 act arrests of gay, queer or homosexual men increased for ‘importuning’, ‘gross indecency’ and other acts that could be said to have taken place in public.
A bloke chatting up a bloke at a bus stop could still get you arrested in the 1970s and 80s. Chatting up a woman, a slap from her is she was unimpressed was the worst you could expect, unless her boyfriend was nearby.
At the end of the second volume a letter in August 1967 from Sir Joseph Simpson the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner to the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Home Office, Sir Phillip Allen, outlined why the Commissioner felt it was appropriate to re-introduce ‘plain-clothes’ policemen to deal with the ‘problem’ of homosexuals in public places.
These were the so-called ‘pretty-boy’ policemen the Met would spend the next forty years denying they used, despite evidence to the contrary. They accounted for the numbers of arrests shooting up immediately after legalisation.
For me these books are informative, a good account of the history of the time they cover and are highly engaging. I can see where they create a useful resource for those with interests in social and political history. They tell us a lot about how ordinary gay men lived and sometimes thrived in what were very difficult times. At times some of the stories are amusing, the catty comments about various actors and their ‘conquests’ are in themselves great anecdotes.
It should be noted that without the Homosexual Law Reform Society and their initial campaigns of letter writing to the press and the to the ‘great and good’ of British society it would have been difficult for the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, the Gay Liberation Front and the politically motivated Gay Pride marches of the 70s and 80s to have happened, and for me to have joined them.
This then reflects on the modern era with some still alive and able to remember the issues around being a gay man before 1967, someone born in 1947 would have been 20 in 1967, and is now 78. It may very well be that some of the reasons these older men now choose to keep their sexuality quiet could be down to the experiences they and others endured back in their youth. It is however essential that these men have access to health and social services that equate to their sexuality although some are still being denied.
These books are essential reading for anyone researching social and political changes in the mid to late 20th century. How we have ended up with our current equality laws. Why the diversity, equality and inclusion policies of our current era are so important. They are hard won and could easily be lost as is shown by what is now happening across The Pond.
Book Review-Ellen Jones Outrage
Ellen Jones Image: LinkedIn
Outrage Image: Mike Butler
I walked in Gays the Word bookshop, near Russell Square, to find myself face to face with the young, purple haired writer and activist, Ellen Jones. Her purple hair and my purple jacket combined in one of those fated, had to happen moments as I was also drawn to the title of her book.
Outrage! was one of those 1990s direct action groups founded by Peter Tatchell amongst others. They campaigned for various things not excluding a request for the Danish government to invade the UK as the Danes had far more ‘relaxed’ LGBTQ+ legislation than the UK at that time.
After a brief chat, I bought a signed copy and headed off to Five Guys. She started the book with a quote, ‘If you’re queer and you’re not angry in 1992, you’re not paying attention...’ the quote came from Michael Cunningham, the actor, writer and activist at that time for another direct-action group dedicated to the fight against AIDS, Act-Up!
The book I was holding in my hands has little to do with the history of either Act-Up or Outrage. It builds from the quote about all of the things that are still wrong, still unequal, things where the straight world does not even seem to understand. How this has a negative impact on the mental health, physical health and welfare of my LGBTQI+ peers in 2025.
She highlights how so soon after Keir Starmer‘s Labour Party has finally won power, the hopes of a new era of revised equality already feels long gone. The fact that Starmer has pulled back on trans equality and Streeting has extended the bans on puberty blockers is enough for her to set the scene.
She sounds guilty at having to write such an ‘angry‘ book as early as page 6. I can see the connection with quote, the word outrage, and why she is right to feel angry. She reignites the anger I felt in my youth, marching against Thatcher, Section 28, for Gay and Lesbian equality and to preserve the right to work and of people in the workplace.
From the reasons why gay marriage does not mean equal marriage through to health inequalities. How these lead to early death, and in some cases the suicides of LGBTQI+ young people that had felt so badly treated they feel unable and unwilling to carry on living. These two things are enough to get angry about, but she is far from finished.
She explains carefully, in clear simple tones. Explaining why those that campaign against trans people and the treatment they feel they need are wrong. and why this must not be withdrawn, in a way that should humble the most anti-trans TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) and JK Rowling should be able to understand and accept.
She talks of refugees running scared for their lives from regimes that would kill them. Kill them for loving what they consider to be the wrong person in the wrong way, and how hard it is to prove they have a right to be running from the threat of death. She rails against the elitist politicians who seem hell bent on making life even harder for the desperate and the dispossessed.
Just 2% of the refugees claim sexual orientation as part of their asylum claims, yet at least half of those will be rejected because they cannot prove they are ’gay’ or ’gay enough‘. Having been rejected on that basis they may be sent back to their deaths.
Page after page she highlights inequalities around parental rights, education, religion and many other areas of ordinary life for ordinary people and how these do not only affect the LGBTQI+ people themselves, but how it affects their children, their parents, their siblings and their friends. How it results in mental trauma, illness, stigma and suicide.
The book highlights how these inequalities deprive LGBTQI+ people, but they also deny the elderly, the disabled, single people, children, the divorced and many other social groups and minorities. With the rolling back of LGBTQ+ rights in both the USA and UK This book gives strength to the argument that the fight for rights for minority groups is not over. We should be ready to protest and to make sure our voices are loudly heard by those in power. We are not a gimmick for winning elections by populist means.
Profile: Sir Michael Cashman
From Oliver to the House of Lords
Michael Cashman CBE
Image Mike Butler
As a child actor Michael Cashman 1960 secured a role in Lionel Bart’s Oliver due to his ability to take off matinee idols of the day. This included Eartha Kitt and Bud Flanagan. During our interview he did a near pitch perfect impression of his friend and former co-star June Brown, who passed in April 2022. June had played Dot in Eastenders for over thirty years. His talent for impersonating others has not been lost.
In the August of 1986 the BBC on its early evening soap Eastenders had just broken NEW ground as the actor Michael Cashman made his first appearance in Albert Square as the first out gay character in a major soap, Colin Russell. He was soon enough to be joined by a partner, Barry Clark (Garry Hailes).
The impact of that moment, played by actor Michael Cashman cannot be understated. It made front pages, mostly of a negative press, and the usual old reactionaries were spitting feathers.
In 1987 Mary Whitehouse was heard to say, ”It is at our peril, and at our children's peril, that we allow this series, with its verbal aggression and its atmosphere of physical violence, its homosexuals, its blackmailing pimp and its prostitute, its lies and deceits and its bad language, to go unchallenged” Eastenders clearly touched a nerve with those that felt they had to guard the nations morals.
Fast forward 38 years and I am sitting down to interview that same Michael Cashman, now 74. Smartly dressed in a blue suit, shirt and tie. He looks as lithe and energetic as he did all those years ago. He was raised to the peerage in 2013 but insists on being called Michael than by any title.
Michael considers himself lucky in that he was spotted by a talent scout in the end of year show at his secondary modern school. This led to him being cast in the original production of Lionel Barts Oliver! in 1960 at the age of 12.
By this time Michael felt he did not fit into the world of football, woodwork and metalwork of his peers. He loved English and words and performing. Girls had become his friends. He had already identified himself as what had at that time been termed as ‘queer‘.
He continued. ’Suddenly I was in an environment where I could be me. All that mattered was that you turned up on time, you followed direction, and that you were easy to work with. That was an oasis in what would otherwise have been a desert.‘
Michael recalls the early Gay Pride marches with attendances of barely five hundred. The chanting of ’2,4,6,8 is that copper really straight’ and ‘we are queer, we are here, and we are not going shopping,’ with the small numbers in those day attending post march events at the Student Union in Mallet Street.
His activism had started with the campaign against the closure of Bethnal Green Hospital. Then in support of the miners against Thatcher and against implementing section 28 (part of the local government bill that was design to stop the ‘promotion of homosexuality’). This was followed by even darker days campaigning for improved medical care at the beginning of the HIV epidemic.
Michael was also involved in the founding of the charity Stonewall UK alongside Lisa Power, Ian McKellen and others. The organisation‘s ethos being to advocate for the rights and equality of LGBTQ+ individuals, to aim to create a world where LGBTQ+ people are free to be themselves.
It was during this time that Michael was also cast Colin in Eastenders, He describes the role as, ‘a very ordinary gay man who lived on Albert Square with his younger boyfriend, Barry.’
This in contrast to the character description of Colin Russell by Piers Morgan, then at the Daily Mirror, of Colin as being a ‘yuppie poof’. This was the era of the young, urban, professional from which the term ‘yuppie’ had been contrived.
It is also at this time that he met June Brown, playing then Dot Cotton, later Dot Branning. There was a scene in the launderette where Barry, Colin’s boyfriend is folding sheets. Dot realises that Colin and Barry are sharing a bed. Dot exclaims ‘Oh No! I don’t hold with that; that's a sin in the Bible you know’. She also makes comments about AIDS.
In the story Barry gets Dot some leaflets, which she reads and then became an advocate for Colin and Barry as well as an HIV ally. Going on to tell people in the cafe, ‘and you can’t get it from a cup, neither!’ All this time Michael is giving me a pitch perfect rendition of Dot Cotton.
The fact that Eastenders at that time was watched by audiences as large as 15 million each episode was crucial in getting out the message that most gay people lived the same lives with the same concerns as everyone else.
This then led to Michael becoming a founder of Stonewall UK and him feeling that he was finding his own voice. He was offered the option of standing as a Labour party candidate for the European Parliament.
His reply, ‘absolutely not, other people go into politics, I did not attend university, I did not finish my education, I left school at the age of 12/13 and then attended a stage school.’
Despite his words he went on to be elected in 1999 as Labour MEP for the West Midlands and served until 2014 when he was elevated to the House of Lords.
‘My passion for equality completely empowered me. Equality across the board not just LGBTQ+, but race, ethnicity, age, disability the whole gamut.’
Whilst elected to the European parliament he worked tirelessly to bring changes that the Labour government had brought about in the UK. both to the new east European countries and those further afield with which the EU traded. He released his memoir, One of Them, in February of 2021.
Michael states, ‘It is my belief that only by joining forces with others, re-enforcing my belief that by working together, you can make lasting change that can be left to others to defend, shape and promote.’
I questioned Michael as to whether with the current events in the USA under Trump and some of the more right-wing elements here in the UK we were perhaps going backward.
His response was emphatic.
‘The attack on LGBT rights, women’s rights, and others is well funded. We must remind the politicians that those rights must not be diminished. As equal rights they define us as equal citizens.’
‘We need young people to come in and make certain that nobody can discriminate against them. We must have equal protections within the law and the obligation from others to abide by those same laws.’
‘We have to allow the younger generation to occupy the political and activist territory, and for them to guard it, if it is not guarded in will be dismantled.’
‘There are well funded organisations in this county trying to strip away rights for trans men and women, trying to strip away inclusive education in schools. They will say you are a gay teacher, and we do not want you teaching our children. This must not happen’
‘Remind your councillor and your MP that those rights must and cannot be diminished. We live in a society where we give equal protections in law, and that has to be cross generational. It must shift both across generations and across sectors (LGBTQ, disability, sex, race and others) not just your rights but the rights of others with it.’
Michael Cashman at 74 still has the passion and the fire to speak out and his platform in the House of Lords gives him a place to do so. He is right. We must find our own voices and platforms. We must not be complacent, or complicit, what has been gained must be guarded and must be protected. The fight for rights and equality is not yet won, there is still work to do.
All words and images copyright 2025 Mike Butler unless stated.
Any queries, comments, criticisms or offers of money can be directed to: mike522b@gmail.com.