MUSEUM LATE: Pride, Protest, & Preserving Our History

Bar open throughout the evening

Join us this June for a late museum opening to celebrate Pride Month and hear about the Echoes from the Dock project, and how you can get involved.

So come along after work, grab a drink at the bar, and mingle in the museum as we host a very special schedule of contributions…

With Sue Gives a F*ck emceeing, you can expect ‘deadpan, knife sharp’ wit throughout the night. A drag performer, comedian, and writer who started life in front of RuPaul, Sue Gives a F*ck has hosted countless sell-out shows and won numerous awards, from The Glory’s Lipsync 1000 to the Museum of Comedy’s New Comedian of the Year.

Hear playwright and crime fiction author Robert Holtom discuss the process of transforming queer history into stories, novels, and plays. Their debut M**der mystery, A Queer Case, came out last year and has been longlisted for the CWA Whodunnit Dagger and is a finalist for the LGBTQ+ Mystery Lammy Award. The sequel, A Morbid Passion, comes out this year.

Stop by the Drunk Tank and make a protest… (badge), that you can wear with Pride! Queer communities have long used pin badges as portable, visible symbols of protest—signalling identity, solidarity, and resistance in everyday spaces where open expression was often unsafe. Will yours be a sign of celebration, protest, or both? Badge making will run throughout the evening with museum staff on hand to help you.

Speak to the conservators of the courtroom dock where Wilde once stood. The conservation team from Plowden & Smith will be present throughout the evening to discuss the ins-and-outs of object conservation. An unmissable opportunity for anyone interested in the field to gain insights into an ongoing project.

Hear from and speak to the ‘Echoes from the Dock’ curator. Following a brief update on project progress, catch our project curator any time during the evening to discuss the ongoing curation process. You are also invited, should you wish, to leave your contact details if you have any personal experiences with the criminal justice system which you feel are relevant to the exhibition, and/or express interest in being involved in its co-curation.

Gather together as we round off the evening with an exclusive live acoustic performance from Danny Starr, a singer-songwriter from London ‘known for attention-grabbing melodies and thought-provoking lyrics that are immediately identifiable as his own.’

The Echoes from the Dock project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It is with thanks to National Lottery Players that we are able to conserve the courtroom dock where Oscar Wilde stood for his committal hearing at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court which resulted in his trial at the Old Bailey and subsequent Pr*son term. The culmination of the project will be an exhibition that explores the queer community’s relationship to criminal justice from Wilde’s arrest in 1895 to today.

Timings: doors open at 18:00, event ends at 20:30

Conditions of entry: this event is recommended for anyone over the age of 18 years.

Tickets: this event is in person at Bow Street Museum of Crime and Justice. This is a dynamic event with multiple activities happening throughout the Museum across the evening, it is therefore a standing only event. There will be no seating available (other than the benches in the cells).

Prices to attend at the Museum: £10 regular admission/ £5 student tickets

PLEASE NOTE:

Photography will be taking place during this event. Images may be used on our website and social media platforms. If you do not wish to appear in any photographs captured, please speak to a member of museum staff.