Union Street s blank weeks when the LGBT+ community would meet for a drink
During the 1950s and 60s, an underground subculture was forming on Union Street
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In the 1950s and 60s, an infamous Plymouth street became a hub for an underground subculture where LGBT+ people could come and let their hair down.
After the Second World War, Plymouth undertook a mammoth rebuilding project and had somewhat of a rejuvenation. As a port and a naval city, we were a target for German bombers and suffered catastrophic destruction during the Blitz.
After the war ended, Plymouth rose from the ashes. Renowned architect Sir Patrick Abercrombie published his Plan for Plymouth in 1943, which cleared the city of buildings that survived the bombing in 1941. The vision was for a radically different, modern city with boulevard-style central roads running east to west, linked by a striking north to south avenue, Armada Way, connecting North Road railway stati
LGBTQ+ three-mile trail through Plymouth stops at 17 fascinating sites
Let s take a look back at the LGBTQ+ history in Plymouth - from Gus Honeybun to a radical bookshop
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Activists demanding change at an OutRage! demonstration in London in 1995. (Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty)
It is 20 years today since the age of consent was finally equalised in the UK after a bruising, years-long campaign from LGBT+ activists.
Today, queer people enjoy many of the same rights as their straight counterparts in the UK – but that wasn’t always the case. Homosexuality was illegal in all circumstances up until 1967, and same-sex marriage was once just a distant dream.
Among the many legal hurdles queer people had to overcome was the battle to equalise the age of consent. Gay and bisexual men had been governed by a separate age of consent for decades, pushing them further into the shadows in the process.