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Memories by Lyn David Thomas

The Kitsch Silver Web

“Wolverhampton was fairly unique in having an openly gay nightclub before Birmingham, the Silver Web, since the 60s. It was run by a flamboyant gay brother and sister, Norman and Betty Webb, who’d previously run the staff bar on the Canberra. Norman ...

The scene in the late 70s and early 80s

“In the late seventies, early eighties, there was no gay club as such in the centre of Birmingham. The Nightingale was in Witton Lane in Aston, and was a very small club - two floors, downstairs a little bar and restaurant and upstairs a tiny disco. ...

Marching at Gay Pride 1980

“My first contact with the Birmingham gay community was in 1980 when the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre organised a minibus trip to the Pride March in London. It was a great experience, my first Pride march, very different from today, the route wen...

Volunteering at the centre

Lyn said, “I started socialising, but didn’t become involved in the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre management until 1985. By 1980, the original Gay Centre in Digbeth had closed, being faced with huge repair costs they’d decided not to renew the lea...

The Evening Mail was outraged !

“We opened the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre in 1985, once we secured the building and started decorating, some money was secured from the West Midlands County Council – a small grant which paid for some equipment, £500 for some second hand sinks ...

Poor location and high running costs

“The Lesbian and Gay Community Centre tried very hard to find a central location near the gay village even to the point of almost exchanging contracts. But when they discovered that the holding company ‘Lamda Limited’, was a gay organisation, people ...

Help from West Midlands County Council

 “The financial problems began fairly soon after it opened and by the end of ‘86 it was clear that it was in deep trouble. The County Council commissioned a feasibility study into the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre which concluded there was a ...

Homophobic response to County Council grant

“However there was again absolute outrage, this was depriving other worthy organisations such as the Boy Scouts, of funds. At that time we were just starting to get the hysteria about AIDS and it fed on the prejudices of people, so again the letters ...

The County Council grant was never paid 87/88

Following the media hysteria, there was a legal challenge to the West Midlands Residuary Body, the legal body charged with winding up the affairs of the County Council, and we got into the position where we were paying for the other running costs, we...

Looking for premises again

“Armed with the County Council’s feasibility study we talked to the City Estates Department who maintained the portfolio of properties that the city owned. At the same time that the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre had closed, the Peace Centre was al...

Description of the Nightingale 1981

“The Nightingale moved to Thorp Street in 1981, the opening night they had an evening with Quentin Crisp which was quite dramatic. It was very ambitious to move from a small two roomed club in Witton Lane in Aston, with water running down the wall of...

Like a French Brothel

“A club called the Venus opened at the end of 1980 where the Hippodrome is now on Inge Street. Its décor could best be described as ‘late nineteenth century French brothel’ – lots of red plush and octagonal fish tank, and at one point in its history ...

Heavy handed policing

“The South Staffordshire Council Health Committee were debating some AIDS related item and the Leader said ‘I would shoot 90% of them or gas the bloody lot of them’, and the Labour leader then said ‘I can understand your sentiments and I share them’....

Dog Sh*t on the lawn

In February 1987 “We held a protest march in Wombourne which staggered the local community; attended by 300 people. The Police filmed the whole event, everyone was photographed, definitely overkill! In the end all the charges were dropped, the ...

Picketing Jill Knights office

“People involved in the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre Aston also became involved with the Anti Section 28 campaign for lesbian and gay rights. It has been said that the Birmingham LGB community was three people and a set of mirrors and it certainl...

Editing In The Pink

Lyn became involved in producing the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre’s newsletters. “They published a newsletter to update members about fundraising and so on and they used to have a Roneo duplicator, to run off a thousand or so copies - some were d...

80s and early 90s publications

"There were no other commercial or non commercial publications in Birmingham in the mid 1980s although the The Pink Paper started shortly after. Birmingham Friend and CHE had each produced newsletters as had the Metropolitan Community Church but thes...

AIDS crisis and the media

“Birmingham didn’t seem to be so highly affected by the HIV crisis as London or Manchester partly because we didn’t have such a vibrant gay scene as places like at that time. There wasn’t a lot of money going into outreach work with gay men. There wa...

Laurie Williams and the Jug

“Laurie Williams was later the owner of The Jug, first in a central area (Albert Street) now redeveloped, and then it moved to Water Street/ Livery Street. Laurie was involved in politics and was a lifelong humanist. He was a good friend and agent of...

Laurie was unique

Laurie Williams was unique; an interesting and complex figure. He was an openly gay man from the 1940s, a pioneer.  He was involved in gay life in World War II in Birmingham. He survived the 1950s because he was so out. That gave him a degree of...

Laurie Williams recalls the 1940s

“One source of information was Laurie Williams who would tell me about gay sex during the blackout in Birmingham in the war; there was active cottaging and cruising; a circuit of notorious toilets to visit; clubs that were accessed by going up the ba...

I felt comfortable in Birmingham

“I left Birmingham in 2000 having been in the West Midlands for 22 years. I left because I am from Cardiff and Cardiff was going through a renaissance; there was a new optimism. I felt comfortable in Birmingham, I still do. Every major city needs a l...

Great send off for Laurie

Lyn recalls “Laurie Williams died in 2002 or 2003, after I had moved back to Cardiff. His funeral was amazing; it was a humanist funeral, it was packed solid with several hundred people; anyone who was anyone that was involved in the pubs and clubs o...

Volunteering at Switchboard 5 nights a week

Lyn became involved with Switchboard from 1983 to 2000. “I started training on the first Saturday after New Year in 1984. It was a fairly successful organisation with 20 or so regular operators. There was a separate Lesbian Line on Wednesdays but sti...

Nightingale charges Switchboard peppercorn rent

“When the Nightingale opened in Thorp Street (in 1981) Switchboard was invited along with Friend to take rooms there for a peppercorn rent for something like £100 a year. There was a stretch for about 3 years when the Nightingale declined to ask for ...

Gay Centre discos at the Matador

“Prior to the Nightingale moving into town (Thorp St) in 1981 there was nothing in the city centre other than the original Gay Community Centre discos in Allison Street, bring your own booze, and 25p for a baked potato, that sort of fund-raising. So ...