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. Discover their stories and find out more about our work in this area, supported by the Queer Heritage Collections Network (of which we're a founder member).

LGBTQ+ history at our places

We look after special places for everyone, for ever. LGBTQ+ heritage plays an important part in the history of the nation and a vital role in unlocking the histories of some of our places.

With the investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund received in March 2021, we're developing our digital skills programme to support our work on LGBTQ+ heritage.

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. He had no choice but to leave England and the home he loved but he continued to send back works of art and treasures.

Edy, Chris and Clare at Smallhythe Place

Edy Craig, Chris St John and Tony Atwood 

Queer history and pioneering spirits: 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.

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

Lawrence of Arabia 

After his military career, T.E. Lawrence retreated to Clouds Hill in Dorset. Homosexual experiences were hinted at in his writing, and he dedicated his most famous work The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) to Dahoum Ahmed, with whom he'd had an intimate friendship.

What does LGBTQ+ mean?

In exploring gender diversity and same-sex love we are 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’ (that is, binary definitions of gender and of ‘one man with one woman’) conventions. 

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

We have 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’.