Exploring LGBTQ+ history at National Trust places

Many of the places we look after were home to, and shaped by, people who challenged conventional ideas of gender and sexuality.

LGBTQ+ heritage plays an important part in the history of the nation and a vital role in unlocking the histories of some of the places in our care.

We are a founding member of the Queer Heritage & Collections Network. With investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are developing our digital skills programme to support our work on LGBTQ+ heritage

Many of the places we look after were home to, and shaped by, people who challenged conventional ideas of gender and sexuality.

Stories and connections

Hugh Cecil Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey

Henry Cyril Paget 

Known as 'The Dancing Marquess', Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey was considered the 'black sheep' of the family owing to his eccentric behaviour and love of performance and costume.

Virginia Woolf sits in her room at Monk's House

Virginia Woolf 

The author Virginia Woolf was a leading light of the Bloomsbury movement in the early 20th Century. Her life was shaped by her unconventional approach to gender and sexuality.

Oil painting on canvas, Victoria (Vita) Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson (1892-1962) by Philip Alexius de László de Lombos

Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson 

A shared vision: find out more about Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, who created Sissinghurst Castle Garden and enjoyed an open marriage with both participating in same-sex extramarital relationships.

William John Bankes by George Sandars

William John Bankes 

Kingston Lacy in Dorset was profoundly shaped by William Bankes, who fled England in 1841 to avoid prosecution for same-sex acts. Although forced to leave the home he loved, he continued to send back works of art and treasures.

Edy, Chris and Clare at Smallhythe Place

Edy Craig, Christopher St John and Tony (Clare) Atwood 

Meet the three women of Smallhythe Place who found refuge in this corner of the Kent countryside to express their art, gender and sexuality, living together in a ménage à trois.

Oliver Messel

Oliver Messel 

Oliver Messel was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century. He grew up at his family home of Nymans in West Sussex, surrounded by art and culture. Oliver was homosexual at a time when this was illegal, but the family’s privileged status meant that Oliver was able to be relatively open about his sexuality amongst family and friends. Despite this, Oliver’s partner Vagn Riis-Hansen has often been left out of biographical accounts of his life.

Archive image of TE Lawrence standing up wearing trousers and a t-shirt.

Lawrence of Arabia 

After his military career, TE Lawrence retreated to Clouds Hill in Dorset. There has been much debate about his sexuality, largely prompted by his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) in which he wrote about homosexual encounters among the soldiers during the Arab revolt of 1916-18. The book is believed to be dedicated to Dahoum Ahmed, with whom Lawrence had a close three-year friendship. Some commentators have since suggested that Lawrence may have been asexual, and he remains an important figure for many in the LGBTQ+ community.

Night by Simeon Solomon

Simeon Solomon 

Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton has 10 paintings by Pre-Raphelite artist Simeon Solomon. He was hailed a genius in his lifetime, exhibiting in all the major London galleries, designing stained glass for Morris & Co. and illustrating books. In 1873 he was arrested and fined after an attempted liaison with another man, followed by a second arrest and 3 months in prison a year later. Sadly his career never recovered and he passed away in the workhouse in 1905.

 

 

What does LGBTQ+ mean?

In exploring gender diversity and same-sex love we're using the acronym LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer) and seeking to acknowledge the widest diversity of lives and experiences.

‘LGBTQ+’ is widely accepted as an inclusive term to reference the diversity of gender and sexuality that go beyond the ‘hetero-normative’ conventions (that is, binary definitions of gender and of ‘one man with one woman’). 

‘Queer’ was once a term of abuse that has now largely been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community. It's also begun to be used as a term that encompasses all aspects of difference across gender and sexuality. It's a way to look at gender and sexuality as a spectrum rather than a series of definite, fixed categories.

We've adopted the approach taken by Historic England in their Pride of Place project and acknowledge that ‘in the past, as today, there is no single LGBTQ+ community, terminology or uniform identity that defines all LGBTQ+ people or heritage’.