Join Queer Tours of London's DAN DE LA MOTTE and Unity Arts' LIL WARREN for this Abney Park focussed  LGBTQIA+ history tour commissioned by Abney Park Trust to celebrate the eve of London Pride 2024 and the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in 1969. This free early evening tour will make the perfect prequel to your Pride celebrations.

Discover the legendary residents of Abney Park Cemetery (location for Amy Winehouse's Back to Black video and the upcoming BBC adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo's Mr Loverman). The characters buried here include pioneering drag kings and other doyennes of Music Hall and a Harlem Renaissance writer who hung out with Langston Hughes. 

Learn about the secret codes within fan dancing and Polari (queer rhyming slang) and the all-important difference between cottaging and cruising. Discover the part Stoke Newington played in queer history - learn the significance of Stokey Town Hall in relation to the ‘Pits and Perverts Support the Miners’ campaign in the 1980s, and the lesbian suffragettes associated with Stoke Newington Library. Hear about Stokey's contribution to alternative pop culture and new identities in the later part of the 20th Century around Northwold Road (such as Glam Rock star Marc Bolan) and comparisons between the now lost and thankfully still thriving lesbian spaces such as Blush Bar and Vogue Fabrics.

MEETING POINT: Stoke Newington Church Street entrance to Abney Park

This event is recommended for people aged 16+.

Access Information: Service dogs welcome. Accompanying carers welcome. Ramp access at Church Street entrance, level access at Stoke Newington High Street entrance. Accessible toilet available on request. Abney Park cemetery has some uneven surfaces, and we will go exploring in there. Please wear sensible shoes, even if they're not glam!

This event is free - donations welcome to support the work of Abney Park Trust.