by Mark A Jones On 11th July 1726, William Brown was making his way along a walk in Moorfields, London. This was a notorious place where men could pick up other men. He spotted somebody he thought he knew would be interested in sex and stopped by a wall to pretend to ‘make water’. Brown …
by Bethan Davis Princess Seraphina, whose real name was John Cooper, was the first recognisable drag queen in English history, who took Thomas Gordon to court for stealing his clothes in 1732. The trial of Princess Seraphina was a captivating and enigmatic moment in LGBT+ history; sodomy was a capital punishment, and whilst Gordon outed …
By Hannah McCann The grand country house of Knole is situated in 1,000 acres of Kent countryside near Sevenoaks and has been around since the 14th century. Knole is the setting of our story.
By Hannah McCann If you were to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, to the Union Station in the early 1900s, you would see a young black girl playing in the railway yard and making her money by dancing on the street corner. This girl is Freda Josephine McDonald who was born in St. Louis on …
By Finley Hammatt Law is and has historically been elevated to a divine status. In 1776, during the revolutionary war against Britain, the thirteen colonies put forth the declaration of independence whereby they laid down supposedly “self-evident” “truths” intended to form the foundation of the colonies governing ideology. Among them was the proclamation that “men …
Mya’s Notes Hi guys, we are still trying to coexist with the Coronavirus and our future seems like it is hanging by a thread. At the end of such a tough year, I would like to dedicate this volume to the theme of Celebration, in order to inspire some positivity in our lives.
By Kerry Lindeque Feeling a bit battered by wind and rain, me and my housemate Caitlin ascended the peak of Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District. We looked out across craggy rocks for the famed view of the national park’s hills and plateaus, but instead saw nothing but pure white mist. Straining …
By Lois Joynt Modern day Britain is a beautiful hodgepodge of cultures and characters; but modern day Britain lies on the dirty bed of its past. The sheets are neglected, the pillows muddied and sullen, in a desperate pit of forgotten-truths. And yet, so much of our present is reliant on our past, so much …
By Bea O’Keefe The fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided East from West, on the 9th of November 1989 is one of the most impactful and moving events of the last 35 years in European history; five million people gathered in Berlin to celebrate this moment. The border was accidentally opened due to a …
By Cath H Kennedy The English have been famous through the ages for their binge drinking, but when the government tried deregulating the beer supply to working-class areas, as a means to stem demand for gin in 1830, they badly miscalculated. Accounts of the resulting disorder suggest that the worst Saturday night brawl today would …
