Live Like a Queen: a look at Britain’s queer stately homes
Cost: $10. Please note that this fee helps keep our small business going during the crisis so we can get up and running right away when it is safe to bring people together again in person.
Tickets: queerstatelyhomestour.eventcombo.com
Join two award winning tour guides for the queerest look you'll ever get at Britain's stately homes!
About this Event
Join award-winning tour guides Nick Collinson and Dan Vo as they look at the grand palaces and stately homes that have been the settings for queer love as well as inspired the fantastical imaginations of film makers across the decades.
From novels, to films, romance among the roses, and bust-ups in the bedchamber, stately homes around the UK have been the setting for queer love and heartbreak for hundreds of years. We go upstairs and downstairs as well as outside into the bushes, to look for queer love in some of the most glamourous residential buildings in the UK. Some of the amazing locations you will see are:
Knole was the ancestral home of Vita Sackville-West, which inspired Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando. The property is where the original, fragile manuscript is kept today.
Sissinghurst Castle is where Vita Sackville-West made her home. Her beautifully designed gardens, while a source of inspiration for English gardens across the country, were first designed by her with same-sex romantic dalliances in mind.
Kensington Palace is the current home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their young family. It was once home to Queen Anne, played by Olivia Colman in 2018 movie ‘The Favourite’. Its corridors echo with the turbulent relationships between the queen and her ‘favourites’.
Shibden Hall is the focus of the BBC drama series written by Sally Wainwright, 'Gentleman Jack' starring Suranne Jones and Sopie Rundle. Within a stone’s throw is also the church where Anne Lister and Ann Walker married.
Madresfield Court has belonged to the Lygon family since the 12th century. It was home of Liberal politician William Lygon, 7th Lord Beauchamp and Governor of New South Wales, who had a penchant for youthful, rosy-cheeked footmen. His story inspired Evelyn Waugh to write Brideshead Revisited...
Castle Howard was catapulted into the public eye in the 1980s, when it was used as the setting for the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. It is still synonymous with the well-loved novel and in 2008 reprised its role in the big screen adaptation.
Speaker bios
Described by the New York Times as a “leading figure in the world of alternative museum tours in Britain”, Dan Vo FRSA developed in house LGBTQ+ tours for the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museum Cardiff and five University of Cambridge Museums: Fitzwilliam Museum, Polar Museum, Zoology Museum, Museum of Classical Archaeology, and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. During lockdown he was the presenter of the BBC Arts program "Museum From Home." He was recently appointed project manager and lead researcher for the UK Queer Heritage and Collections Network, formed by a partnership that includes the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic England and Historic Royal Palaces. A museum freelancer, he is a consultant for LGBTQ+ programming at the National Gallery and Tate Britain and is on steering committees for several museums and promotes diversity, equality and inclusion in the UK as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, trustee of Culture24, patron of LGBT History Month and a Stonewall BAME Role Model. Prior to moving to London, he was a senior manager at JOY 94.9, Australia's first and only LGBTQ+ radio station, and currently presents a monthly show called "The Past Is Queer" on Alphabet Radio in London.
Nick Collinson works in the Interpretation and Learning Team at the English Heritage Trust. Here he is responsible for creating and maintaining a world-class visitor experience by delivering an exceptional standard of on-site interpretation through exhibitions, trails, interactives and guided tours at over 400 historic properties including Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall and Tintagel Castle. He also formed the English Heritage Trust 'Queer History Hive' of like-minded individuals looking to increase the representation of LGBTQ+ individuals associated with English Heritage sites. He masterminded English Heritage's first queer event - “Queer Walls” at Eltham Palace last year (sadly not running this year but will be back next year), and has recently completed a trail on Aelred - the 'gay saint (?)' of Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire (sadly also currently postponed). Also an accredited City of London tour guide, Nick runs his own London tour business - The Urban Rambler - where he leads historical tours of the capital for private groups. He has most recently worked with the Museum of London, where he contributed to a series on the Lost Rivers of London, and a new walk to highlight the queer history of Vauxhall in south-west London.
