By MKWeb  |  Posted: June 30, 2015

 
LGBT-Bletchley-Park-included-interactive-map showing over 200 buildings and locations across the country deemed to have ‘untold lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) histories.’
Led by historians at Leeds Beckett University’s Centre for Culture and the Arts and experts from Historic England, the ‘Pride of Place’ project aims to chart the untold LGBT histories of buildings across the country and to encourage the public to help further map the heritage of the LGBT community.
Alongside Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing broke the Enigma code during the Second World War before he was persecuted for his homosexuality in 1952, the map includes a Manchester temperance hall whose infamous cross-dressing ball was raided by the police in 1880 and a 14th-century bisexual prostitute’s lodgings.
The project covers sites from Roman Britain to the present day, including the homes of prominent members of the LGBT community, pubs, cultural spots and activist sites.
The former Crown Inn in Shenley Brook End, where Alan Turing lodged whilst working at Bletchley Park has also been outlined on the map.
A spokesperson from Bletchley Park said: “Alan Turing was one of the pre-eminent Bletchley Park Codebreakers, a visionary mathematician whose work contributed enormously both to the outcome of World War Two and the computer age.
“In the exhibition The Life and Works of Alan Turing, which features a signed copy of the 2009 apology from the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, The Bletchley Park Trust celebrates Turing’s short but brilliant life and achievements, many of which are more relevant today than they were during his lifetime.”
Professor Alison Oram, lead researcher at Leeds Beckett University, said: “It’s really significant that LGBTQ history is being recognised and promoted by our national heritage body, Historic England, and I am delighted to be developing this project with them. It means that people all over England will have the opportunity to contribute to and learn about the LGBTQ heritage that exists in the streets and buildings all around us.”
You can plot your own LGBTQ heritage places on Historic England’s interactive map and see what buildings and landscapes others are remembering here.
The news follows this year’s LGBT pride parade in London that took place last Saturday (June 27.)
The theme of this year’s event was Pride Heroes and Alan Turing was one of many LGBT figures celebrated.
Family members including his great niece Clare Dowling joined tens of thousands on the streets of London to represent the legacy of the revolutionary computer scientist at the parade