Stuart Feather & Bette Bourne talk about polari
Stuart and Bette talk about Polari in the 1950’s and 1960’s and how it was forced on people by the circumstances at the time.
Archive for May, 2014
Ronald Wright
Here’s Ron talking about his first visit to a gay pub in London in the early 1950’s which was The Standard in Piccadilly Circus
Bette Bourne & Paul Shaw talk about their favourite RVT acts
Bette Bourne and Paul Shaw talk about the favourite acts they’ve seen at the RVT.
Paul O’Grady Re-Opens Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
We found this video on the Friends of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens website, it features Paul O’Grady re-opening the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens on 1st February 2012.
The RVT Re-Opens
Here’s an advert we found from the early 1980’s which announces the re-opening of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern after ‘extensive re-docoration’. I wonder if this was when the bar was moved and the stage area added? Interesting to see mime and drag advertised as 7 days a week, including Sunday morning.
Simon Casson – When the RVT was threatened with demolition
Simon talks about the ‘save our pub’ demos, that took place in the 1990’s when the RVT was threatened with demolition. Here’s a link to an article in from The Pink Paper dated 2nd October 1998.
Police Raids in the 1980’s
Going through the Hall Carpenter Archive in London, there is a lot of articles written in the 1980’s highlighting the number of police raids and entrapment cases going on in gay bars at the time. Here’s a few examples.
The Devil Rides Out – Paul O’Grady
I’ve just been reading Paul O’Grady’s Biography, which is broken down into 3 books. There’s some very interesting recollections of the RVT. The part below is from the second book ‘The Devil Rides Out’ when Paul was performing as part of the drag group ‘The Glamazons’. “At the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in what felt like a rough part of sarf…
Stuart Feather describes the RVT in the 1960’s
Stuart Feather was a member of the Bloolips with Bette Bourne, as well as well being a member of the Gay Liberation Front in the 1970’s.