Caravan gay bar

Rather, it was a ground-breaking, safe, temporary space for the Gay community at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. The life of the Caravan Club was short: it opened in July and was shut down after a police raid in August of the same year. The modern iteration of the club takes inspiration from that, as well as black-and-white archive photos of the original venue.

The modern interior is decked out with green and gold fabric in oriental designs and beer barrels serve as tables. Thanks to a caravan of police records kept by undercover officers who infiltrated the venue by posing as punters ahead of the August raid, the National Trust and National Archives were able to piece together a coherent account of the characters who frequented the bar, and the activities that went on there.

Rather quaintly, organisers also held a nightly chocolate box raffle, which is caravan recreated at the modern venue. This was caravan before the Sexual Offences Act ofwhich decriminalised homosexual acts in private. There is one letter, from a regular who went by the pseudonym Cyril Fleur De Lyon, sent to Billy Reynolds, the owner of the club.

On the night of the raid, people were arrested and taken to Bow Street police station. Many were soon released but Reynolds was given 20 months in jail — a long term considering the bar had been open so briefly. During the evening openings, actors will be playing the undercover policemen who infiltrated the club, and the actor Chris Green will be performing as Fred Barnes, an openly gay performer gay the s.

Those who made their way into the subcultures in the cities would have been lucky, but also brave. As the club members were taken away in handcuffs, the police made meticulous bar of what the clientele said to each other. They do not understand us people. When you are in a world where being yourself is persecuted, you look after each other.

Does he expect a similar sense of community in the new version of the club? No two bar will be the same in the Caravan. It is also part of a day-time walking tour of historic queer venues around Soho. The i Paper. Emily Jupp.

Caravan Club

March 02, am Updated July 16, pm. A secret London location became a destination for LGBT party-goers in but was closed by a police raid after just a month. Gay Rights. Long Reads. Lionesses will stop taking the knee after Jess Carter suffers racist abuse. The easy ways you can improve your life physically, emotionally and morally.

Flooding fears after torrential downpours across the country.