Record producer Joe Meek, arrested in a toilet in Islington in 1963.Field appealed against the conviction twice but failed on both occasions. Field, (Member of Parliament), was arrested for persistently importuning in a public toilet in 1953. Actor John Gielgud was arrested for "importuning" in 1953 in Chelsea.Peter Dudley, an actor in Coronation Street who played Ivy Tilsley's husband, was arrested in 1981 in a toilet in Didsbury, Manchester.Actor Wilfrid Brambell, known for appearing in Steptoe and Son, was arrested in a toilet in Shepherd's Bush on 6 November 1962.He later used his position as a journalist several times to get off charges when caught soliciting in public toilets by the police. Tom Driberg, later an MP, who was charged with indecent assault after two men shared his bed in the 1940s.He was also later arrested in France for a similar offence. Simeon Solomon, a painter who was arrested in a London toilet in 1873 with a 60-year-old stableman.Therefore, despite more tolerance in the law and society at large, gay men have continued to be at risk of prosecution for public sex.Ī number of well known people have been arrested for sex in public places in England and Wales, including: Eventually, in 1967, some of the Wolfenden Report's recommendations of a decade earlier led to the decriminalisation of homosexual sex in private no such legal privilege pertains to sex in public places, either for homosexual or heterosexual sex. An 1885 law prohibited "gross indecency", which included all erotic conduct between men. The death penalty for anal sex was lifted in 1861. The lesser crime of "gross indecency" carried penalties including the pillory (as in the case of the Vere Street Coterie, who were arrested in a raid of a gay club in 1811), transportation and imprisonment. The penalty for anal intercourse during most of this period was death however, specific proof of successful anal penetration was required for this verdict to be brought. In more recent times, public lay-bys located either on or off main roads or rural roads have also become popular sites.īefore the 20th century, anal sex, whether conducted in public or private, was illegal under sodomy laws, including the Buggery Act set down by Henry VIII in 1533.
When cruising first became known, it usually took place in public fields, parks, toilets (or " cottages" as they would become known as in the 20th century). Cruising provided a way for gay men to solicit sexual encounters while minimizing the risk of being caught by the police.
Prior to the Sexual Offences Act 1967, this illegality meant that many gay men could not live openly as homosexuals. Cruising came about owing to the illegality of homosexual acts in the United Kingdom. So-called "cruising grounds" or "cruising sites", where gay and bisexual men meet at a public place to cruise for sex, originated in the late 1600s (from the earliest known records, although it most likely originated much earlier) and has continued to the present day. He believes that the first gay cruising grounds and gay brothels in London may have sprung up in the early 17th century theatres were sometimes denounced as such by moralists of the time. Rictor Norton, author of Mother Clap's Molly House (a reference to Margaret Clap), is one of the few historians to address the topic. The history of gay cruising is sparsely documented, as the illegality of gay sex meant that those who used such cruising grounds were likely to be discreet about them.