Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1985-1998 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 archive box of audio cassettes.
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Camden Lesbian Centre Project (CLCP) was founded in 1982, when several women from a loose social collective known as Kentish Town Lesbian Group (based at the nearby Kentish Town Women’s Workshop) recognised the need for a space expressly for lesbians. The group - all of whom were white lesbians - successfully applied for grant funding from Camden Council Women's Committee, and they began organising regular meetings and events with a view to establishing a centre for lesbians. In 1984, the Black Lesbian Group was founded as a support group for Black lesbians and lesbians of colour, who faced the tripartite barriers of homophobia, racism, and misogyny; the group used the term 'Black' in the broader political sense.
Having worked closely together, Camden Lesbian Centre Project and the Black Lesbian Group merged to form the Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group (CLCBLG) in 1985. Despite their differences and the fact that CLCP had originally excluded Black lesbians from its initial stages, BLG members felt the merger presented an opportunity to improve things for their community. The merger agreement stipulated that at least 50% of CLCBLG's staff and its Management Committee would comprise Black lesbians and that around half of the Centre's events and workshops would be for Black lesbians only.
From 1985-86, CLCBLG sought out premises across Camden. Although initially unsure of how the site would work for them, the group eventually applied for a change of use for a former retail space at 54-56 Phoenix Road, which they were granted amidst vocal resistance and homophobia from some local residents. The group signed the lease in September 1986. CLCBLG worked with Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, Support Community Building and Common Ownership Design and Construct (CODAC) to renovate and alter the Centre before opening its doors to the public on Saturday 31 October 1987. From this point onward, the Centre was a social and political hub for many strands of London's lesbian community, becoming home to workshops, socials, seminars, discussion groups and other events. It became the base of groups like the Older Lesbian Network, Zamimass Black lesbian group, and GEMMA, the friendship network for disabled and non-disabled lesbians.
With successive and ever more severe cuts to grant funding from Camden Council, CLCBLG was forced to scale down its paid staff members and operations from c.1990 onwards. The Centre eventually wrapped up its operations in 1996, when the group was informed that they'd receive no grant funding in that year's budget.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Audio cassettes:
Tackling Heterosexism: A Handbook of Lesbian Rights & GLC Women’s Committee (tapes 1 & 2; n.d.); LA Anti-Discrimination Code of Practice (n.d.); Borough Action News No. 3 (tape 1; Jan 1987); Radar/Mind 1986 Disabled Persons Act & Handbook of Voluntary Organisations (c.1986); Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) 1986 Chapter 33 (c.1986); Women and Public Transport (n.d.); Haringey Disabilities Committee (June 1987); Education Matters (re Clause 28 & News of Lords Debate; n.d.); CLCBLG minutes of Management Committee meeting & agenda (Nov & Dec 1991); International Women’s Week exhibition (7 Mar 1991); Hackney: Staying Out (May 1988); Disability Sub Group (13 Jul 1987); ITOI Guidelines for Advocacy in Mental Handicapped Hospitals (n.d.); Borough Action News No.3 (tape 2; Jan 1987); GLC- Equal Opportunities Code of Practice (tape 2; n.d.); Women & Transport Conference (Oct 1985); LLGRC Conference info (n.d.); How to Make Ink Print Available to Blind & Partially Sighted People booklet (n.d.); Tackling Heterosexism (tape 3; n.d.); Lesbian Strength & Pride (1989); Disability sub group & access code to unit (9 Mar 1987); Minutes of Lesbians & Gays with Disabilities subgroup (13 May 1987); Harassment of lesbians and gays: how to challenge it in GLC (n.d.); Disability subgroup (14 Sept 1987); Disability subgroup mailing original (13 Aug 1986); Progress Report Disabilities GLC (tape 2; n.d.); L&G Sub Committee (1 Oct 1986); L&G with Disabilities Further Action (n.d.); Gay Men’s Sub-Group Disability sub group (9 Jan 1987 & 21 Jan 1987); Disability sub group minutes & access code to Lesbian & Gay Unit (9 Mar 1987); GLC Move Together (tapes 1 & 2; n.d.); GLC Women’s Bulletin Carematch (tape 3; n.d.); GLC Women’s Committee Knowing the Difference (tape 3; n.d.); Changing the World (tapes 1-3, multiple copies; n.d.); Changing the World Recommendations Gay/Lesbian GPS (n.d.); Section 28: A Guide for School, Teachers, Governors etc. (tapes 1 & 2; n.d.); Lesbian and Gay Sub-Committee (tape 3: agenda No.11-16; 16 Dec 1986); Making Connections PWD & PW AIDS (n.d.); Lesbian and Gay Sub-Committee (tape 4, agenda no.16 & appendix; 16 Dec1986); Haringey Lesbian Strength and Gay Pride Programme (1987); Haringey Strategy Statement on Racial Equality (n.d.); North London S&P Programme (1988); Local Government Bill mailing (n.d.); GLC Women’s Bulletin (tape 1; n.d.); Women & Disabilities (tape 1; Jan 1986); Women’s Committee Support Unit & draft of booklet on lesbian experience (n.d.); Access at conferences & meeting for people with disabilities (tapes 1 & 2; n.d.); North London Lesbian Strength and Unity; Materiography parts 1/2 & 3/4 (LRB 11; n.d.); Radio 5 Out This Week (25 Jan 1998); Women’s Airwaves (n.d.); Reformation- Chadwick (Part III, pp. 363-386); To Kirsten Hearne from CLCBLG (n.d.); Mistress tape reply to tape letters of enquiry from individual women to LISG (n.d.); Kirsten Hearne (from CLCBLG) concerning training (n.d.); Minutes of CLCBLG Management Committee & meeting agenda (Dec 1991 & Jan 1992); Letter to CLCBLG Management Committee members re non-attendance (Feb 1992); OLGA Prospectus (n.d.); Greater London Council Computer Information Pack for PWD (n.d.); Unite Bulletin no.1 COH Newsletter (May/June) & Guidelines for Sub-Group Co-operation (n.d.); GLC Women’s Committee Ailsa Beckett article contd (n.d.).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open for consultation.
Conditions governing reproduction
Please consult the Archivist.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
- Braille
Language and script notes
Some tapes include titles and descriptions in Braille.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Created Summer 2021
Language(s)
- English