Some thirty years after their initial creation, Phil Polglaze's recently resurfaced photographs of London 'cottages' and cruising venues – now held in the Museum of London’s collection – make for an exceptional archive that is being seen by the public for the very first time.

Homosexuality was partly decriminalised in the UK by the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, but a socio-political climate shaped by conservative opposition, Section 28 and the AIDS crisis meant that the struggle for gay rights was anything but over. In the decades after 1967, an estimated 15,000 men were prosecuted and convicted on charges of gross indecency by ‘cottaging’ or cruising in public spaces. Now retired barrister Terry Munyard and solicitor Bruce Reid defended men on trial for such criminal charges and commissioned Phil Polglaze to produce documentary photographs in aid of their defence between 1979 and 1996.

Polglaze photographed public toilets all over London to demonstrate to the judge and jury in the court room what might or might not have been witnessed from a visual point of view in the lavatories in an effort to challenge the prosecution’s statement and exonerate the client.  As a unique visual history that was never intended to survive, the photographs subvert familiar ideas of photographic evidence and tell a story of LGBTQ+ oppression through the documentation of these highly charged spaces.

Join Phil Polglaze (photographer), Terry Munyard (retired barrister), Bruce Reid (solicitor) and Jilke Golbach (Curator) in a Q & A session conducted by Justin Bengry (Centre for Queer History, Goldsmiths) to discuss the history and significance of this remarkable photographic archive.

PLEASE NOTE: The roundtable begins at 6:30pm

Prior to the event, please join us for a viewing of a selection of Polglaze’s photographic prints in Room 137A of the Richard Hoggart Building at Goldsmiths (5:30-6.30pm).

For a map of the Richard Hoggart Building showing room 137A please see: https://www.gold.ac.uk/campus-...

Justin Bengry is Director of the Centre for Queer History at Goldsmiths where he convenes the world's first MA in Queer History.

Jilke Golbach is a curator, writer and researcher (formerly Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London, and Assistant Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery).

Terry Munyard is a retired barrister doing criminal law and inquests for 40 years who was instrumental in decriminalising gay sex in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Phil Polglaze is a self-taught London photographer whose early commission to support the defence in 'cottaging' cases with photographs of London's public toilets has created an unprecedented archive.

Bruce Reid is a solicitor who was active in defending men accused of "cottaging" offences in the 1980s and currently works for a large London Defence practice.