Bishopsgate Institute

The Bishopsgate Institute

The Bishopsgate Institute is an institution in Bishopsgate in the City of London, near Liverpool Street Station. It opened in 1895.

LGBT history

Bishopsgate Library holds a variety of collections relating to LGBT history, politics and culture. These include the archive collections of organisations such as Stonewall and Outrage, and material relating to the Terrence Higgins Trust, London Gay Switchboard, Achilles Heel magazine and QX magazine.

The LGBT collections at Bishopsgate Library are mainly based around the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA). LAGNA consists primarily of a collection of an estimated 250,000 press cuttings covering all aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans experience from the late nineteenth century to the present. Sources include broadsheets, tabloids, local newspapers, magazines, journals and specialist publications. The cuttings are organised by subject matter, biographical content and location and a catalogue of all those from the 1930s to 1969 is available on the LAGNA website.

LAGNA also includes a library of around 3,000 LGBT titles, including academic works, biographies, fiction, poetry and pulp fiction. The LAGNA pamphlet collection includes around 700 pamphlets and includes programmes for festivals and events, material from campaigning organisations, catalogues and other material. The collection also includes extensive ephemera and club flyers, t-shirts, banners and badges .