8 places
Notable Landmarks
Monuments of love, liberation and the history of pleasure itself.
The launch of the Marquis de Mayfair brand, a boutique off Bond Street on Old Burlington Street, Mayfair.
Documented historyNotable LandmarksShaftesbury Memorial Fountain ('Eros')London, Greater London · EnglandLondon's classic lovers' meeting point — 'meet me under Eros' — though the statue is actually Anteros, the god of mature, requited love, chosen to commemorate the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury (Gilbert called Eros/Cupid 'the frivolous tyrant').
Documented historyHot spotNotable LandmarksMên-an-TolMadron, Cornwall · EnglandCornwall's famous fertility stone — crawl through the ring to conceive. The fertility/healing folklore is genuinely recorded, though the 'seven times at full moon' formula is largely a modern accretion.
Documented historyNotable LandmarksSt Winefride's WellHolywell, Flintshire · WalesThe 'Lourdes of Wales' — a holy well whose origin legend is a tale of thwarted lust; pilgrims still bathe in the star-shaped basin for healing and intercession.
Documented historyNotable LandmarksFirst Ann Summers ShopLondon, Greater London · EnglandThe Edgware Road sex shop that launched the Ann Summers name in 1970 was aimed chiefly at men. Jacqueline Gold's women-led party-plan model from 1981 transformed it into a mainstream retail empire.
Documented historyNotable LandmarksThe Mothers' Clinic for Constructive Birth ControlLondon, Greater London · EnglandBritain's first birth-control clinic opened here on 17 March 1921, offering free contraceptive advice to married women. Its importance to women's bodily autonomy and Marie Stopes's support for eugenics both belong in the record.
Documented historyNotable LandmarksThe Gateways ClubLondon, Greater London · EnglandBehind a green door at 239 King's Road, the Gateways became what English Heritage calls London's best-known and longest-lived lesbian social venue. It introduced a women-only policy in 1967, closed in September 1985, and received an English Heritage blue plaque on 2 July 2025.
Documented historyHot spotNotable LandmarksPadstow 'Obby 'Oss May Day FestivalPadstow, Cornwall · EnglandCornwall's riotous May Day rite where being caught under the 'Oss means a baby (or a husband) within the year. The 'ancient pagan fertility rite' story is a 20th-century folklorist invention (per Ronald Hutton), though the custom itself is genuinely old.
Documented history