Walking Proud in London allows the richness of London’s LGBT heritage to be made visible, gathered and shared in a new way. With your help.

Here is how it works. Each site of memory is a point that will show on the special Googlemap interface we have developed with leading web development company, ThoughtWorks. When you click on a point a balloon appears with space for a small thumbnail, a short explanation and two links. One links allows you to offer memory or material immediately. The other (right arrows) takes you to a gallery page where, after moderation, we will be displaying whatever you tell us, provided it’s not libelous or inflammatory. Words, images, audio or video can all be displayed.

Some places evoke personal memories. Others are sites of shared experience. There are also those with an historic significance, beyond living memory but nonetheless documented. ALL ARE WELCOME. We expect some people to disagree about their memories, and others to find their own recollections come flooding back.

We have started off with fifty or so points chosen at random, all waiting for your memories. We know there are many hundreds more. Tell us about them!

But the project doesn’t stop there. The Mayor of London’s support for this scheme included commissioning Proud Heritage to produce a toolkit exploring a simple way local authorities can make visible sites of LGBT heritage. Developed with it’s backing, the tool kit will set out how Manchester City Council tested and approved rainbow paving stone insets at stops in its LGBT heritage trail. MCC are delighted we are picking up this idea and rolling it out nationwide. Look out for launch details.

In the next phase, we are planning to create real world exhibitions and heritage trails, and online we want to completely automate the process of giving memory and uploading material. With your support, we will enable contributors to have their own profile showing the material they have uploaded, across the whole museum, with the ability to choose how much they share with other users, and the ability to find others based on their experiences. In other words we plan to bring social networking and real time user-generated content into Proud Heritage.

Click on the WALKING PROUD tab to return to the hub.