Between platform twelve and seven
1966
Alan, who still considered himself straight in 1966, remembers cottaging as a way of meeting other men for sex. He began questioning his sexuality after an experience in a cottage. “I used to make it a habit to pop to the cottage at the old Snow Hill Station on my way home. It was downstairs between platform twelve and seven with Victorian tiles. Someone had drilled a little hole in the wall between the cubicles and you could see what was going on, occasionally someone would pass a note through. On one particular night this guy came into the same cubicle as me, and before I could tell him I did not kiss we were kissing, I enjoyed kissing him and began to question my sexuality, until then I had always considered myself straight. I was nineteen and he was seventeen. Cottaging was very risky but it was the only way I knew how to contact men, it was also very exciting which may have been because it was so risky!”
Contributed by: Alan 2, 60