Séamus Rea was born in 1956, in Northern Ireland. He moved to the King’s Cross area in 1980, and has lived there ever since. Moving to King’s Cross represented an escape from the oppressive atmosphere that he had grown up in, as a young gay man.
“It was an amazing, liberating experience to move to King’s Cross. I don’t wear nostalgic glasses. King’s Cross was a shit hole. It was dirty, it was sordid, there were a lot of sex shops, and people living in cardboard boxes. [But] for the first time I was legal. I wasn’t a criminal”
When he arrived in London, Séamus was introduced to a hedonistic party scene in downtown King’s Cross, and an elegant art scene up the hill, where he lived in the attic room of art historian Stella Newton’s house. Here he reflects on the contrasting worlds he encountered, and the characters he met there.
Story by Polly Rodgers
Photographs by Michael Hall
Music played by Séamus Rea and composed by Burton Lane