Agitprop Bookshop / Bethnal Rouge

1972 — Closed
248 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2

Agitprop was an anarchist bookshop which moved around various parts of London and faced multiple police harassment and raids. Two of its members were arrested on conspiracy-to-procure-firearms charges and accused of being part of the Angry Brigade, while two others were threatened with deportation.

In 1973 the Agitpop collective had decided to close the shop, and offered the lease to other groups. Members of the Gay Liberaton Front (GLF) took up the offer, renaming it Bethnal Rouge and living communally above the shop. The Bethnal Rouge collective were known as 'radical queens' or 'radical feminists', they dressed in drag and lived in communes. A split developed between the 'queens' and those they termed the 'straight gays' or 'civil rights' gays, which led to an attempt to move the GLF office from 5 Caledonian Road to Bethnal Rouge.

Sources:

Lisa Power. No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles: An Oral History of the Gay Liberation Front 1970-73. Cassell, 1995: 247-263,272-282.

Rosa Schling. Peace! Books! Freedom! The Secret History of a Radical London Building (Housmans, 2023)

Past Tense: Today in Queer History