Eduardo Paolozzi mosaics, Tottenham Court Road station
I was kicked out of school when I was a teenager (I had experienced a lot of homophobic bullying but instead of the bullies being asked to leave, I was), and so I ended up studying for my A-levels at a historic gay pub called the King Willie (King William IV) in Hampstead. There, I met some amazing people, who took me to Soho, which, in the late ’90s, was the centre of an ultra-queer scene, an amazing efflorescence of design culture, art, interiors, fashion and politics. I ended up living there for 15 years and it was during this period that I encountered Eduardo Paolozzi’s mosaics at Tottenham Court Road station, a work which had a profound effect on me. Unveiled in the mid-’80s, the mosaics turned the Underground station into this grungy, shiny, glittering cave. As you went up the escalators, there were these six incredible mosaic archways, under which me and my friends would pose, taking photos of each other, completely dressed up to the nines. Since the Crossrail redevelopment, a lot of it’s been lost and the bits that are left are slightly denatured, but you can still get a taste of what it used to be, which was a piece of amazing everyday art that was gorgeous, sensual, colourful and for the people. I’m currently working on a 57-metre-long mural mosaic at London Bridge station, called In a River a Thousand Streams, which is hugely influenced by it.
Fitzrovia Chapel
The old Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia was where a lot of the men who had AIDS in the ’80s were treated, often in incredibly sad circumstances with their families refusing to visit them and their friends banned from touching them. Back then, the hospital chapel was a place of refuge, one of the few spaces where those men could commune and meditate. When they demolished the rest of the hospital, they kept the chapel and it’s one of the most incredible pieces of architecture in the whole country. Even though it wasn’t designed by someone queer, it became a background for queer life, and it’s absolutely exquisite.
Fitzrovia Chapel, 2 Pearson Square, London W1T 3BF; fitzroviachapel.org
Westminster Cathedral
I’ve always found it interesting that really over-the-top Catholic spaces often become very important to queer designers and that’s definitely the case with Westminster Cathedral, which is a glorious, sensual celebration of mosaics and beautiful decoration. For some reason it’s completely ignored by most Londoners and by tourists, but it’s actually far better, I think, than the nearby Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street, London SW1P 1LT; westminstercathedral.org.uk
The new generation of queer spaces
Sadly, lots of queer nightclubs and bars are closing, but in the past few years London has seen the emergence of lots of new types of spaces for queer people. There’s the country’s first queer museum, Queer Britain. It’s currently in a relatively small space in King’s Cross, but I believe it’s going to be moving elsewhere and it’s a fantastic organisation. There’s also the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre, which opened recently on the South Bank, just by Tate Modern. It’s an amazing community-led organisation that provides a free space for queer people to host events. And there’s Queercircle in the Greenwich Design District, which is a cultural arts organisation that focuses on queer practitioners. In the past, queer spaces were very hedonistic but this new generation of spaces is more cultural and community-oriented and I think that’s a really interesting and positive change.
Queer Britain, 2 Granary Square, London N1C 4BH; queerbritain.org.uk
London LGBTQ+ Community Centre, 60-62 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH; londonlgbtqcentre.org
Queercircle, Building 4, Design District, 3 Barton Yard, Soames Walk, London SE10 0BN; queercircle.org
To see Adam’s mosaic, In a River a Thousand Streams, head to London Bridge station. And for more on his many projects, go to: adamnathanielfurman.com/projects
