The streets of London and their little-known queer heritage is the subject of a new guided walk app developed by a ¾¢±¬´ó¹Ï academic.
Professor of Eighteenth-Century English Literature Chris Mounsey is the co-creator of the app with colleague Dr Lena Matheis from the ¾¢±¬´ó¹Ï of Surrey which launches at in London on 31 May.
The pair met when Lena invited Chris to record an episode for her queer theorist podcast while she was working at the ¾¢±¬´ó¹Ï of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.
When Lena came to the UK, Chris invited her on a walking tour of London to “introduce her to some of my queer friends from the 18th century” and so the idea for the app was born.
App creators Chris Mounsey and Lena Matheis
The app will take users on a three-and-half hour walk around the capital stopping off along the way to hear stories about some of the amazing queer characters who lived and worked in the city during the 18th century.
“The app is the application of modern technology to history,” says Chris. “It is an educational tool, intended to widen knowledge both to queer people, and to others so all may learn that queer people are not a modern phenomenon.”
It focuses on the 18th century as Chris says these were more accepting times than most of us might think.
“There’s an erroneous idea of queer people a denounced minority but that’s not borne by the grassroots facts,” says Chris.
Mary Anne Talbot, a woman who passed as a male soldier and sailor. Engraving by G. Scott, 1804 ( (Wellcome Library, London)
Figures featured in the app include:
While Thomas Andrews was saved from the gallows, some were less fortunate.
Engraving of Field Lane. 1847 (from the author's presentation copy of The Life of Dickens, 1872-74)
The walk takes in Saffron Hill – then called Field Lane – the site of Mother Clap’s Molly House – a queer meeting place, where several men were arrested during a crackdown in 1726. Three customers arrested during the raid were later hanged.
At Finsbury Circus – then Moorfields Gardens – the tour encounters a Queer hero and what Chris describes as “a British Stonewall moment”. William Brown was caught with another man in an alley. He proclaimed boldly to the authorities: “I think there’s no Crime in making what use I please of my own Body.”
The tour, which takes three-and-a-half hours, starts at Somerset House and ends in the heart of the City of London, with plenty of good pubs along the way.
The app has been developed with Winchester design agency We Mean This and is free to download.
As Chris is partially-sighted, the app has been designed with blind and deaf users in mind with audio descriptions and directions as well as text and maps.
You check out the app by searching listenqueer.co.uk on your mobile phone.
Back to media centre