Four Corners is delighted to announce Queer East End, a new project exploring LGBTQIA+ life in East London in the 1970s and the 1980s. 

We are recruiting a Project Coordinator: find out more here

Queer East End will take Nighthawks (1978) Britain's first explicitly gay film, and Same Difference (1986), a groundbreaking lesbian and gay photography exhibition, as starting points to investigate this defining period in British LGBTQIA+ history.

Beginning in November 2026, this 20-month project will work with twelve volunteers to research the communities and stories of the period, and record oral histories and reminiscences. They will create several short films and podcasts inspired by the material. The project will culminate in a public exhibition, talks and events at Four Corners and at BLOC Cinema, Queen Mary, University of London.

Project partners are Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives, BLOC Cinema (Queen Mary, University of London), East London Out Project (ELOP), Rainbow Tree, and Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.

The project oral histories and documentation will be made publicly accessible at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives, and on Four Corners’ archive website. 

Further information coming soon!

Image credit: Nighthawks pilot shoot at London Independent Film School, 1977. Unknown photographer.  Left to right: Unknown man, Jo Davis, and Tony Godden. With courtesy of Tony Godden.