On the 50th anniversary of the UK's first Gay Pride Parade, the United Kingdom’s first National LGBTQ Museum opens its doors on the ground floor of 2 Granary Square in King's Cross on 5 May. With the slogan ‘Let’s make history’, Queer Britain is aimed to create a place that is as exciting as the people, stories and ideas it explores and celebrates.
The inaugural exhibition ‘Welcome to Queer Britain’, showcases the museum's growing collection, including photographs by Allie Crewe and Robert Taylor as well as portraits by Sadie Lee and Paul Hartfleet, winners of Queer Britain’s first Madame F Award for queer creativity. Matthew Storey, the curator of the exhibition, expresses that he hopes the objects chosen for the exhibition "reflect the rich diversity of the LGBTQ+ community past and present, as we look to the future of this important new museum".
Homosexuals have influenced every part of history. Yet their lives are often written in the margins of history books, or even ignored. Valuable stories and artefacts are being lost. Once gone, they may never be recovered. These should have a dedicated space to be preserved, explored and celebrated. Queer Britain will put this issue at the centre of its commitment to creating a museum that explores LGBTQ+ history, people and ideas.
As the country with the most advanced and extensive LGBTQ rights in Europe, other museums in the UK also have significant LGBTQ archives. The National Museum Liverpool encompasses items such as leaflets and documents relating to major gay events and clubs in the UK, the British Museum which also has a dedicated LGBTQ tour to explore LGBTQ collections relating to themes such as desire, love and identity, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which contains a range of objects links to LGBTQ history.
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