Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains with John Grindrod

About this event

A twentieth century history of LGBTQ+ lives in suburbia.

Throughout LGBTQ+ history, suburbia has been seen as somewhere to escape from: a place where heterosexuality rules; where difference will not be tolerated; where you’ll never find a soulmate. But for many, those streets of twitching curtains and pebble-dashed semis were – or still are – a place to call home.

From Addlestone to Wilmslow, Tales of the Suburbs explores the relatively untold twentieth-century tale of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people in suburbia. Through remarkable archive material and original interviews, social historian John Grindrod reveals stories that are messy and moving, dark and funny, uplifting and extraordinary. Together, they reclaim suburbia as a space for all – or those that want it – where counter-cultural expression thrives despite the Neighbourhood Watch, and queer love and friendship bloom against the odds.

John Grindrod is the author of Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain (2023), Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain (2013) and Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt (2017). He has written for publications including the Sunday Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Big Issue and The Modernist. He has given talks at the V&A, the RA, the Southbank Centre, the RIBA, the Museum of London, Tate Liverpool, the Boring Conference, universities around the UK and Europe and, twice, at Five Leaves.