Outrageous Imperial
1955
"My friend took me to the Imperial Hotel Bar “He said ‘I will show you what a gay pub is really like, we don’t want to go in the Troc(adero)’. The bar was predominantly gay and the men used to ‘camp it up’ in there. The first time I went I was the only woman in the bar and an older gentleman appeared in a black cape with red lining and swished it around him and said ‘Just call me Madam’. The men were really advertising themselves as gay”.
Contributed by: Meriel Bloor ne Monsell, 72