The Peace Centre, a gay gathering place
1981
Belinda was employed at
the Peace Centre near Moor Street, next to Reddington’s Rare Records,
from 1981 until 1985 when it closed. The core of its clientele were
anarchists, anti-nuclear activists and gay people. “At the time there
weren’t many ‘gay gathering places’ and the ones there were tended to
be short-lived or without a fixed venue so the Peace Centre provided a
focal point. The gay boys from a teenage group would come on Saturday
afternoon to do each other’s hair”. A small group of fascists came to
harass people at the Peace Centre because they were left wing and
because they knew there were gay people there. “They came in once and
threw paint over a woman who was behind the stall and then they used to
write things in the underpass. One of my treasured memories is of one
of the gay men who was rather tall, the partner of the man who ran the
place, was sitting behind the counter and these three young lads came
in shouting something hugely imaginative like … you know… communist
faggot… and this man then quietly got up and rose to his full height of
six foot five and you never saw anybody run out of the door so fast –
that’s all he had to do!”
Contributed by: Belinda, 60