Pride – what it means to us
St Margaret's House is deeply committed to supporting, protecting and celebrating queer communities in East London and beyond. As we come to the end of this year’s Pride Month, we wanted to offer you an insight into how we showcase the work of queer artists, offer safe spaces of joy for queer communities, advocate for the intersectional rights of LGBTQIA+ people and shed light on queer histories. And most importantly, how we do this all year round from our welcoming base in Bethnal Green.
Our connection to the queer community is longstanding; building on from the pioneering work of SMH’s founders, whose radical understandings of social change helped pave the way towards the progressive and inclusive organisation we are today. Even in the earlier stages of SMH’s existence, during the late 1800s, we demonstrated clear and sustained advocacy for the rights and protection of sex workers in the East End – an approach which felt years ahead of its time. More than 100 years later, SMH continues to foster connection and belonging for Tower Hamlets residents, and specifically, queer communities. Our arts and wellbeing offer is for everyone but we also ensure we provide spaces for communities who may need specific support as well as platforming voices that may go unheard in other spaces.
What Pride means to our Producer
Sam Bettridge, our Arts & Wellbeing Producer, has been involved with SMH for six years – having initially started as a placement student from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the Autumn of 2020, building his role with the organisation since then. During his placement, Sam worked with Headsbodieslegs Theatre company on the Molly’s Masquerade – a National Lottery Heritage Fund supported year-long community project which explored the forgotten histories and early LGBTQIA+ culture of the East End during the 18th century. This began Sam’s professional and personal journey at SMH, which he reflects on below.
“The Molly’s Masquerade project demonstrated how vital place-making can be for queer people. When you’re stood in a 120+ year old community hall learning how to vogue the house down; after completing GLF (Gay Liberation Front) activist training; in-between dressing up in drag and learning how to speak Polari*...it dawns on you that the very presence of queer bodies in this space is revolutionary. The coming together of such a diverse variety of individuals to partake in heritage learning, communal making –or simply some romp and farse – is incredibly profound. Being able to play a small part in a year’s worth of programming specifically for queer communities was an exceedingly formative experience which has, in turn, informed so much of the work I do to this day as a producer both here at SMH and beyond in my own projects”
* Polari is a unique, coded slang or cant historically used primarily in the UK by marginalised communities, most famously the gay subculture in the mid-20th century. It was used as a secret language to socialise, express identity and discuss personal matters without fear of detection, arrest or harassment.
You can read more about the Molly’s Masquerade project here: https://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/molly
Working with queer artists
Inherent to queerness, is a commitment to curiosity and inquisitiveness. Understanding queer as a verb – to queer something – is to disrupt and challenge traditional norms and understandings of a perceivable ‘truth’. As our Producer, Sam is so often drawn to working with queer artists, due to their ability to approach their artistry or practice through a forever curious, forever-queer lens of seeing and doing. A great example of this is when Sam worked with Nina Scott and Dan de la Motte on their artist residency Be More Mushroom (2022-2023). On the surface, this was a theatre project bolstered by scientific learning, with the goal to create a family-friendly play alongside a series of workshops. But as Sam puts ‘queer people – and certainly queer artists – do not do on the surface’. The pair worked for six months: compiling an abundance of academic research; understanding social theory; acknowledging queer history; and thus, creating a bespoke exploration of queerness and mycology. Sam notes ‘Only a queer person (dare I say, a queer genius) would be able to articulate the prolific connection between the mycelial network and the queer community, through the medium of an 80’s-synth-inspired cabaret musical’. This ability to follow curiosity and to question what is ‘known’ in order to arrive at your own, wonderfully vibrant and unique conclusion...is what makes queer work so powerfully pertinent and, of course, packed with pizazz.
The notion of queering practice and artistry can be found across all avenues at SMH, although the glitz and glam does seem to be reserved predominately for theatre and cabaret (no surprises there!). Over the last five years, Sam Bettridge has worked with an abundance of queer artists, creating such innovative and dynamic work through regular offers of arts and wellbeing workshops. Again, what draws Sam to these artists is their ability to offer something with such consideration and nuance. These workshops offer a deeper connection to the material – if you’re attending the Lost in the Foxglove poetry series, you aren’t just writing poetry, you are provoking the what ifs, you are safely exposing the self and you are collectively healing in a room of other FLINTA identifying individuals (Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Transgender, and Agender). Our facilitators take great care to carve out a space of specificity and purpose, acknowledging the abject need for community and safety for queer people.
Queer history and activity all year round
Given that SMH is an organisation committed to social change, Sam has also been produced larger projects which seek to engage people in queer history and/or queer issues. Installing the FRUIT MACHINE exhibition in November 2025 was a huge highlight. Being able to showcase the work of Andrew Lumsden, a trailblazing Gay Rights campaigner, whilst bringing together community members to share their own queer history was beyond inspiring. In equal measure – and very much in keeping with what Sam adores about queerness – there has been plenty of room for wanton debauchery! In 2024, our collaboration with The Divine (formally The Glory), the iconic queer venue in East London, saw the great drag icons Jonny Woo and Seayonce occupy our spaces as only they knew how...with plenty of chiffon and plenty more inuendoes.
You can read more about the Andrew Lumsden exhibition here: https://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/past-exhibitions
Sam Bettridge has been successfully producing events and activities for queer communities at St Margaret’s House for 5 years – contributing towards the entrenchment of SMH as vibrant, creative and safe space for queer people to meet, connect and unite.
Pride Month at SMH and Beyond
For the fourth consecutive year, we are hosting Ice & Fire’s Queer Migrant Pride Fest at St Margaret’s House on Saturday 21st June. a free day festival of wellbeing, workshops, activities, talks, screenings and performances to foster a world without borders.
Celebrating the overlap of Refugee Week and Pride Month, attendees can expect performances, screenings, workshops and stalls all focused on the celebration and wellbeing of queer migrants. It’s all about taking care of ourselves and each other, with workouts, self-defence classes, massages and yoga and meditation sessions. A dedicated ‘Beauty Beyond Borders’ salon offers haircuts and make-up to ensure everyone feels like their most fabulous self. There are opportunities to get creative and centre self-expression, with creative writing and crafts. On the practical side of things, there are workshops and immigration advice sessions for people who are going through the asylum and immigration systems and for people who want to know how to support friends and challenge the injustices of the hostile environment.
Queer Migrant Pride Fest, Saturday 21st June, 12noon-9pm
Info here: https://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/events/queer-migrant-pride-fest-26
Lost in the Foxglove has been running for nearly four years at SMH, with regular offers for people to come together and write porty in a safe and considered environment. Drawing the summer term’s series of workshops to a close, Lost in the Foxglove is headlining our Open Mic for this year's Discover Festival at SMH! Expect a night of creative expression, live performance and the fostering of connection with other likeminded people. This event coincides with Trans Pride and with this in mind, we are curating an evening filled with fantastic trans poets and musicians. Lost in the Foxglove will also return in the autumn with more workshops – watch this space!
Discover Festival: Lost in the Foxglove Open Mic, Saturday 25th July, 6-9.30pm
Info here: https://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/events/lost-in-the-foxglove-open-mic
We’re throwing a Big Queer Garden Party – the perfect opportunity to get those fascinators at the ready!
Join Dan de la Motte for a whirlwind romp through queer history in the glorious St Margaret’s House Garden. Explore the significance of flowers in queer history and find your inner flower power. It’ll be an afternoon of queer joy and resistance, supported by the Grand Camp Maisie Fund. It’s the perfect way to end this year’s Discover Festival, our showcase of the arts and wellbeing activities we offer Bethnal Green and Tower Hamlets communities all year round.
Discover Festival: The Big Queer Garden Party, Sunday 26th July, 2-5pm
Info here: https://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/events/the-big-queer-garden-party