Alex Beyer’s Memories of The Gay Centre
Alex Beyer (left) with his partner Dennis Simmonds (right)
Alex first met Malcolm Greatbanks in 1975 at Waterloo station and gave him a lift in his taxi to Brixton. In those days the media portrayed Brixton as 'murder mile' or a 'mugger's paradise' and many taxi drivers would not take people there. They would drop people either side in Vauxhall or Herne Hill. Malcolm was wearing a gay badge saying 'Yes I'm Homosexual Too'. This was the first time Alex had met someone who was out as gay and the chat that followed enabled him to acknowledge his own sexual identity in a more positive light. He had passed the Gay Centre several times on his travels down Railton Road and had often thought of paying a visit but had not plucked up enough courage to enter. A week or so later Alex took up Malcolm's offer to look him up at the Gay Centre. Having first met John Lloyd there, who introduced him to other centre users, his first impressions were extremely positive:
"...I loved it. I mean I always had an affinity with hippies, freaks...living alternative lifestyles. I didn't want anything posh. That was the era in the 70s when young men had long hair which was very nice. You used to see all these people sitting around and it all looked very interesting to me. I made friends with Graham Mumford, Chris Langan and Lloyd Vanata right from the outset. Mark Carroll was a character. Scatty Queen."
"Yes, I liked the atmosphere. It was infinitely preferable to the straight* gay scene because...there was a message, there was a cause. The straight gay scene was amusing and everything with the Polari.** but they weren't very aware. The Gay Centre was much more preferable and I didn't really want to go back to straight gay pubs after that."
He was both attracted to and wary of the more politicised gays:
"...not everyone was politicised. I really liked what became known as the hierarchy. People like Alistair (Kerr), Colm (Clifford), Gary (de Vere), Stephen Gee, Tony Smith, Edwin Henshaw. I took to them. I thought they were really interesting people even though the political angle was new to me."
But he felt pressured into considering political issues that were new to him:
“…the Irish business. There were posters about that. One might argue that the people of Ireland are being oppressed by the British and we should identify with them. I was never really into politics and felt that they were laying this on me and should not be telling me how to think about the Irish business."
He was clear that there was a big divide between the inarticulate and less political people and those who were better educated and politicised. The latter included all those who organised and ran the gay centre whereas the others were centre users with no experience of either of those positions of responsibility. But despite all the differences he was so enamoured of the place he would finish his taxi run late at night and stay until the small hours with only four hours sleep before rising again for work at 6am:
"I spent all my time at the Centre when I wasn't working."
Alex met Dennis Simmonds, his long-time dearly beloved partner for over 20 years, at the gay centre:
"This is how the centre functioned so well for me. I was 35 at the time and there was this young guy there who was 20. I thought I'm over the hill at 35. One of the elder statesmen of the gay world...I didn't realise he (Dennis) was interested in me. I was very friendly with Graham (Mumford) as was Dennis because they used to go out together...a lot of their life revolved around scoring dope and smoking it."
Graham invited Alex over to his place in South Lambeth Road but he insisted that he really wasn't into 'smoking'. Graham, in matchmaking mode, pointedly hinted that Dennis would be present. From that point onwards the relationship flourished. Given Dennis never went on the straight gay scene Alex could not have met him in any other context than at the gay centre.
The one big regret Alex had was in not feeling able to come out to his work mates and customers: