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.
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.
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 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.
Jason & Robert discuss gay bars from their younger days and homophobic abuse outside the RVT.
This scene was filmed in the RVT in 1970. Skinny drag queen puts on a show in the pub while twins Jacki and Julian make new friends. From the 1970 film “Goodbye Gemini”, directed by Alan Gibson. Starring Judy Geeson, Martin Potter, and Alexis Kanner. Produced by Joseph Shaftel Productions
Stuart Feather talks about a photograph he discovered of the RVT in 1975.
Bette remembers the RVT from the 1950’s when he was 17 and it was divided in 3 sections. It was one of those pubs where you weren’t quite sure who was gay or not.
The project is moving along nicely – we did one of our first interviews last week with Bette Bourne and Paul Shaw. Bette used to go to the RVT in the 1950’s and remembers the bar being split into 3 sections, one of them being just for ladies. We’ll be posting the interview in the next day or so….
Filmed as part of Duckie’s Vauxhall Bacchanal last year. Built in 1863, this legendary London pub is 150 years young. How far back does it’s queer identity and its reputation for drag shows go? Rupert Smith investigates with Neil Bartlett, Stuart Feather and Maisie Trollette.