Highbury Fields — First UK Gay Rights Demonstration

On the night of November 27, 1970, around 150 members of the newly formed Gay Liberation Front gathered on Highbury Fields with torches — Britain's first gay rights demonstration. The trigger was the arrest of Young Liberal Louis Eakes in a police entrapment operation on the Fields; the response was something Britain had never seen: queer people protesting in public, as themselves. On the demonstration's 30th anniversary in 2000, OutRage! and Islington Council unveiled a plaque near the spot of the arrest, on the old toilet block on the Highbury Crescent side — politicians including Chris Smith and Jeremy Corbyn attended. What you see today: an ordinary, handsome Islington park, free and open at all hours, with the plaque as the only marker. Two minutes from Highbury & Islington station, it makes a quiet pilgrimage point: the exact ground where British queer protest began.