IHR Derek Keene London Lecture 2023: Collecting and celebrating LGBTQ+ History in London and Beyond: The Adventures of an Archivist

Although only starting to document LGBTQIA+ History in 2011, Bishopsgate Institute is now the proud home of the UK’s largest LGBTQIA+ archive, collecting and celebrating LGBTQIA+ experiences in London and further afield. Through photographs, oral histories, diaries, newspapers and ephemera of all kinds, these collections tell a story of monumental political and social struggles in the capital. But this story is also one of liberation, joy, love, sex and much, much more. Join the institute's Special Collections and Archives Manager Stef Dickers to hear how this archive was developed, the stories and adventures behind the collections and how he has sought to collect the history of LGBTQIA+ London and further afield in a different way.

Stef is the Special Collections and Archives Manager at Bishopsgate Institute and has been responsible for the development of the Institute's collections on the history of London, protest and activism, and LGBTQIA+ Britain. He qualified as an archivist in 2001 and started at Bishopsgate in 2005. Previous to this, Stef worked in the archives of the London School of Economics and Senate House Library. 

The lecture series commemorates the work of Prof. Derek Keene (1942-2021), a leading scholar of London and comparative urban history, and founding director of the Institute of Historical Research’s Centre for Metropolitan History. Co-founded by the Institute and the Museum of London in 1988, the Centre carried out numerous research projects in the history of London and other cities, as well as pioneering work in environmental history and digital humanities. The Centre’s work is now continued by the Centre for the History of People, Place and Community.  


The lecture sits alongside the IHR’s London Summer School | Secret London running from 10th to 14th July 2023. The IHR London Summer School offers a unique opportunity to explore London’s stories and historic places from our home here at Senate House in the heart of Bloomsbury. Guest lectures from world-renowned experts and interactive workshops will focus on topics from London’s earliest history to the present day – as well as visions and policy debates around its future. Site-specific work will take us out to archives and museums, as well as offering special access to some of London’s most fascinating historic sites. Students will have access to the remarkable London collections in the IHR’s Wohl Library, including maps, rare books and a range of important primary and secondary sources. Alongside programmed content, IHR academic and library staff will be available informally for consultation and bespoke support. This year, workshop and lecture content will be organised around the broad theme of Secret London.