Cottaging was like a 1960s gay guide
1963
“Everybody cottaged, through cottaging I found out where the bars were! Every bus station and every railway station had a cottage frequented by gays in the 1960’s. ‘The train and bus stations were always a bit more dangerous, there were always other places which were much safer and were more outrageous, most for example had holes in the walls, some even had chunks of wall missing so you could go from one lock up to the next. Because I did a lot of travelling from 1963 onwards if I went to a strange town I went to the bus station or the train station. In an hour you could find exactly where to go as chatting to people in the cottages, it was a sign post, you did not need pink paper or a gay guide.”
Contributed by: John McGarry, 70