John Gielgud
16 Cowley Street · a great Shakespearean, and the 1953 scandal
John Gielgud was one of the supreme actors of the century, famed above all for his Shakespeare and for a voice people crossed cities to hear. In 1953, at the height of a post-war clampdown on gay men, he was arrested for ‘importuning’ and fined – a public humiliation. The audience at his next performance rose to applaud him in defiance.
He lived at 16 Cowley Street in Westminster. English Heritage’s blue plaque is on the house.