It started here
Southwark's Black queer history runs deeper than almost any other borough's — most of it is only now being told.
Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke came to Britain from Barbados in 1914 on a scholarship to Cambridge, and in 1920 opened a GP surgery at 112 Newington Causeway, near Elephant and Castle. He served the borough there for 45 years, co-founded the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931, became Britain's only Black District Medical Officer by 1936, and later advised the newly independent government of Ghana. He was gay, and largely written out of the history he helped make — until a blue plaque went up on the site, now London South Bank University's Perry Library, in April 2023.
Berto Pasuka — the Jamaican-born dancer who co-founded Les Ballets Nègres, Britain's first Black-led dance company, and whom BLKOUT honoured with our own inaugural lecture at the National Portrait Gallery in 2019 — gave his home address as 35 Camberwell New Road in at least one contemporary document. This borough, not just a gallery in Westminster, is where he actually lived.
In 1992, the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre — founded in Haringey in 1985 — found its permanent home in a converted railway arch on Bellenden Road, Peckham: Europe's first purpose-built Black lesbian and gay centre, running until 2000. A Rainbow Plaque marks the site since February 2024.
And in November 2020, BLKOUT held our own Assembly there in spirit if not in person: a Sunday session with Southwark LGBT Network and Southwark Council, asking the borough directly — a Southwark Black queer hero, erased? It was about Dr Clarke.
The thread runs to the present. Carter the Bandit — a gay drill and rap artist of Ghanaian and Jamaican heritage, born and raised in Peckham — has built a career bringing queer energy into a genre that rarely makes room for it, praised along the way by Nicki Minaj and Saucy Santana. If you know more of this borough's story, or you were part of that 2020 Assembly, the panel below is where you tell us.
The 2021 Census counted around 80,100 Black residents in Southwark. On the estimates we publish, that's 1,800 to 2,500 Black queer men in the borough, living here right now. These are working estimates and we welcome correction. The point is the scale: we were never a niche. We were just never counted.
Here in Southwark
What's organised in the borough for Black queer men and Black LGBTQ+ people, as we find it — and help us find more. Southwark's own scene is unusually strong; more of it is in the directory below.
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Black, Queer & Thriving — Black Thrive
A Black-queer-centred mental health and community research programme run jointly across Lambeth and Southwark, including a 2025 community research report launch.
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In the directory — BLKOUT in Southwark
- London LGBTQ+ Community Centre — Sober community space in Bankside — hosts Melanin Vybz (POC 50+), sexual health and mental health support.
- Melanin Vybz — Monthly group for LGBTQ+ people of colour over 55 at the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre
From the BLKOUT Places directory — every entry checked for activity in the last year.
Gatherings across London — the BLKOUT events calendar
Fewer and truer: what's actually on for Black queer London, checked by people, never padded.
Beside us in the borough
Neighbours doing good work in Southwark. Use them — and tell them we sent you.
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Southwark LGBT Network
Running since 2002 — builds and strengthens LGBTQ+ community life in the borough, and partnered with us directly on our 2020 Assembly series.
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Mabadiliko CIC
Trauma-informed, African-centred mental health and anti-stigma work for Black African and Caribbean communities, led by a Southwark Civic Award winner — currently running LGBTQIA+ health research with the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre.
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Loving Men+
A gay/bi men's connection and intimacy-skills group running pot-lucks, picnics and discussion nights across London, including sessions near Southwark.
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Worth the journey
Black queer men have never let a borough boundary decide where community happens. Where you're centred, not just welcome:
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Black Connection
UK-wide social network for Black queer men aged 50+, formed in 2020 and run out of London — regular meet-ups and an active, growing community.
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Look after yourself
Free, confidential, no GP needed, no judgement — and your business stays yours.
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Sexual Health London (SHL)
Free, discreet home test kits and PrEP by post anywhere in London — order online, nothing to explain to anyone. Southwark takes part in full.
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56 Dean Street
Soho's LGBTQ+ specialist sexual health and HIV service — Europe's largest, and long the home clinic of queer London.
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Find your nearest NHS clinic
Every NHS sexual health service near you — testing, treatment, PrEP — searchable by postcode.
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Next door
The doors are opening borough by borough. Step through, or help us open the next one.
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2025.
2,500
Your guess stays in this browser.
One dot for every Black queer man the census estimate puts in Southwark — between 1,800 and 2,500 of us.
| Borough | Black residents (2021) | Black queer men (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Croydon | 88,500 | 2,000–2,800 |
| Newham | 88,200 | 2,000–2,700 |
| Lewisham | 81,900 | 1,800–2,600 |
| Southwark | 80,100 | 1,800–2,500 |
| Lambeth | 76,100 | 1,700–2,400 |
| Brent | 62,500 | 1,400–2,000 |
| Hackney | 59,300 | 1,300–1,900 |
| Enfield | 58,200 | 1,300–1,800 |
| Haringey | 52,400 | 1,200–1,700 |
| Waltham Forest | 46,700 | 1,000–1,500 |
2021 Census analysis — Who Are the UK's Black Queer Men? (BLKOUT's Critical Frequency dossier)
Nobody keeps this number. Not the council, not the NHS, not the people who commission work in this borough. The estimate is ours, built from the 2021 Census, because a population nobody counts is a population nobody plans for.
Know your Southwark?
Three questions. No prizes except the stories.
01 Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke, a gay Barbadian doctor and civil rights pioneer, ran his GP surgery for 45 years at which Southwark address?
112 Newington Causeway, near Elephant and Castle — from 1920 until his retirement in 1965. He co-founded the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 and was the only Black District Medical Officer in Britain by 1936. A blue plaque was unveiled on the site, now London South Bank University's Perry Library, in April 2023.
02 In 1992, the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre found its permanent home in a converted railway arch in which Southwark neighbourhood?
Peckham, on Bellenden Road — Europe's first purpose-built Black lesbian and gay centre. It ran there until 2000, and a Rainbow Plaque was unveiled on the site in February 2024.
03 In November 2020, BLKOUT's own Sunday series 'Assembly' — with Southwark LGBT Network and Southwark Council — asked a pointed question about the borough. What was it?
'Southwark Black queer hero — erased?' — the Assembly session that put Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke's story back in front of the borough that had mostly forgotten it.
Reading the borough
Southwark's Black queer record runs deeper than most boroughs' — start with these, and tell us what belongs on the shelf.
- Berto Pasuka — Contemporary record, historic. A contemporary document gives Pasuka's home address as 35 Camberwell New Road — this borough, not just the National Portrait Gallery lecture we gave in his name.
- Gay rapper Carter the Bandit calls for end to Black and gay stereotyping — PinkNews, 2024. On the Peckham-born, Ghanaian and Jamaican-heritage drill artist bringing queer energy into a genre that rarely makes room for it. Read the piece
- Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke (1894–1970) — Southwark Heritage, 2020. The borough's own account of the gay Barbadian doctor who served Southwark for 45 years. Read the piece
- A forgotten hero — The Doctor, BMA, 2023. On Cecil Belfield Clarke's medical career, his politics, and his erasure from most histories of Black Britain. Read the piece
- Cecil Belfield Clarke: Newington Causeway plaque honours Blitz GP — SE1 News, 2023. On the blue plaque unveiled at London South Bank University's Perry Library, on the site of his surgery. Read the piece
- Assembly: A Southwark Black Queer Hero — Erased? — BLKOUT, with Southwark LGBT Network and Southwark Council, 2020. Our own Sunday Assembly session putting Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke's story back in front of the borough, for Black History Month.
- Rainbow Plaque: Black Lesbian & Gay Centre — Studio Voltaire, 2024. On the Rainbow Plaque unveiled at the Centre's former Peckham home. Read the piece
From the BLKOUT archive
Southwark runs through our own writing and our own Sundays — the 2020 Assembly session on Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke among them. Those pieces are in the story archive and being brought back online; when they are, they'll be listed here.
Browse the story archiveAsked, answered
Where can I meet other Black queer men in Southwark?
Start with the door on this page — you'll hear about everything as it happens. Southwark's own scene, in the directory below, is stronger than most boroughs', and BLKOUT's national community is open to you today.
Where can I get an STI test or PrEP in Southwark?
Sexual Health London posts free test kits and PrEP to any London address, no GP and no conversation required, and 56 Dean Street is a short ride away in Soho.
Is BLKOUT a Southwark organisation?
BLKOUT is one community-owned co-operative for Black queer men across the UK — with a door in every borough. We're registered in Croydon and we belong wherever our men are. We held our own Assembly session on Southwark's history in 2020.
I'm not out. Can I still come?
Yes. Come as you are — nobody at this door asks you to be anything first, and your business stays yours.
Is the history on this page accurate?
It's checked against the public record and dated so you can see when we last looked. If we've got something wrong — or missed something you were part of — the panel at the bottom is where you tell us, and the page changes.
Be met
Come as you are. We answer.
Leave your name and we'll keep you posted about Southwark — what's on, what's starting, and how to be part of it. This goes to BLKOUT, a co-operative owned by its members. No engagement machinery, nothing sold onward — just a community that answers.
Step inside
The door is how we find each other. BLKOUTHUB is where we live.
The members' room: Black queer men across the UK, owned by the men in it. Why knock:
- Real connection. Nearly four in five members say they came to find it — and found it.
- No algorithm, no ads, nothing sold onward. A room that doesn't monetise you. Your attention is yours; we're after your company.
- Where things actually start. Occasions, groups, and the knowledge that never gets written down — passed man to man, the way it always has been.
- Owned by us. A co-operative with an asset lock: what we build together stays ours, and passes to the men who come after.
And don't just read about AIvor — talk with him. Our own voice, named for the man whose name is over every door. Ask him about BLKOUT, about Black queer life, about Southwark — he answers.
Talk with AIvor nowMake it truer
This page leans on one great story, and the people here know the rest of the borough's. If a group has folded, a night has moved, or we've missed something you were part of — tell us. Corrections get credited, if you want the credit.
If you work here
This page is for Black queer men first. But if you serve this borough — NHS, social prescribing, council, community sector, creative health, or you run a room — there's a door for you too.
- Refer. Supporting a Black queer man who could use his people? Send him this page — that is a referral, and every knock gets answered by a human.
- Commission or partner. Working on Black queer men's health, culture or connection in Southwark? We're the community-owned, by-and-for partner — and the evidence base is already on this page. Write to rob@blkoutuk.com.
- List us. Maintain a directory, a support page, a signposting service? Our entry, ready to paste:
BLKOUT — the UK's community-owned co-operative for Black queer men. In your neighbourhood: https://events.blkoutuk.com/southwark/ · blkoutuk.com · rob@blkoutuk.com - Run a room. A venue, night or group our men should know about? Tell us — the page gets truer, and it points at you.
We list our neighbours and our neighbours list us. That's how a borough works.