A Camp! tour of London with Paul Baker: Glitz and grunge from Mayfair to Soho
To celebrate the release of Camp!, author and cult-favourite Paul Baker’s most colourful and ambitious book yet, we’re inviting you on a walking tour in collaboration with VoiceMap that explores London’s campest landmarks.
Paul pulls back the curtain on a world of glitz, grunge, culture and protest, through Mayfair to Soho. He’ll tell you about the fabulous, memorable people who lived or worked here, and their significance to the world of camp. You’ll also learn what makes camp so special, how attitudes towards it have changed over time, how it continues to evolve, surprise and even upset people.
Finish the tour and you’ll get a password that unlocks a deluxe book bundle at Foyles on Charing Cross Road, and discounted drinks at iconic gay bar Village Soho, and Club Soda Tasting Rooms, London’s only non-alcoholic bar.
On this hour-long tour, you’ll:
- Visit some of Oscar Wilde’s old haunts and residences
- Admire the glamour of the Ritz and hear about it’s most flamboyant frequenters, including playwright Joe Orton, otherwise known as Edna Welthorpe
- Take in Tramp, a nightclub and popular locations for films
- Discover the Savoy Turkish Baths, an (in)famous secret hangout for queer people, artists, and bohemians since 1910
- Hear the incredible story of the Anteros statue in Piccadilly Circus
- See Windmill Soho Nightclub where the high kick girls kept a look out for bombs during World War II
- Relive Josephine Baker’s most iconic moments at the Prince Edward Theatre
- Find out who was the campest spy of them all (Hint, it’s not James Bond or Austin Powers)
Take the tour at voicemap.me/camp-london
Read all about the history of camp
25 May 2023 | £20.00
‘Paul Baker captures essence of an essentially uncapturable phenomenon making it just knowable enough for all. My dear, she’s on fire!’ – Damian Barr
By the bestselling author of Fabulosa! and Outrageous!, this reappraisal of camp across time and in all its glorious forms shows how an inescapable part of popular culture has also played an important role in equality movements as a form of protest or resistance.