Every story matters: Pride in London

London is a city where you are free to love who you love, and truly be who you are. We asked influential members of London’s LGBT+ community to design a roundel that reflected their experiences of Pride. 🏳️‍🌈

Amy Lamé

Night Czar – Office of the Mayor of London

💬 ‘I regularly take the Tube and bus to visit spots around the city linked to inspiring people from our diverse LGBT+ history. I wanted to design something that encapsulates London’s rich LGBT+ history and also shows a pathway for the future. My design is a hand drawn quote from the great author, playwright and wit Oscar Wilde: ‘Be Yourself; Everyone Else Is Taken’. Like so many LGBT+ people in London, Wilde came from elsewhere – in his case, Ireland – and made the capital his home. It is here he fully became himself.

Living freely and openly expressing his sexuality would eventually lead to his arrest on charges of ‘gross indecency’. Plus a two year prison sentence of hard labour. The start of his time in prison was spent in nearby Pentonville. Wilde’s tragic story reminds us just how far we have come in our battle for LGBT+ equality, and how important it is to remember those who pushed boundaries in order for us to be free.’

Philip Normal

Councillor for Oval Ward in Lambeth, Designer, Activist

💬 ‘I came to London as a teenager dreaming of the sort of big city welcome I didn’t get in my home town. I wasn’t disappointed. You can carve your own identity and be your true self in London, you don’t have to wear a label. You can just be. ‘Untitled’. I don’t take my freedom for granted. Too many never got to see the progress of recent decades. We must always remember those we have lost to HIV/AIDS. Never stop fighting.’

Marc Thompson

Activist, Director of The Love Tank

💬 ‘In my work and activism, I want to challenge the notion that love between Black men is unacceptable. In a world where our love is judged, met with violence, and criminalised, to express it is revolutionary. ‘Brixton, my forever home, has a rich history of Black queer activism. Having this roundel in my local station where I have boarded tubes set for destinations where I explored the richness of Black gay life in London, makes me immensely proud.’

Dan Vo

Museum Educator

💬 ‘This roundel design is based on moquette textile patterns. It uses familiar colours from across the TfL network to represent the Inclusive Pride, Trans Pride, Bi Pride and Intersex Pride flags. Can you spot all the colours of the Tube?’

Dan renamed this station ‘Happiness’ because now you know the way, you can always journey to a place of happiness.

Tim Dunn

Historian, Geographer, and Broadcaster

💬 ‘London’s buzz gives me energy: that’s why I’ve lived here in Zone 1 for 15 years.

Last year, silence fell and I missed you all terribly; but as you’ve returned, you’ve brought colour and life back to our great city.

Whilst you were away, all I had were buildings to keep me company. So here are a few with personal or LGBT+ historic importance to them. From the 18:37 on the clock of Big Ben referencing the time of the Admiral Duncan bombing, to the long-lost Skylon of 1951 as a symbol of my hope for a better future.’

Let us know what Pride in London means to you 👇

Tell us what Pride in London means to you in the comments below.

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