56 Dean Street & Dean Street Express
The clinic that stopped transmissions
Dean Street Express opened on 10 February 2014 as a walk-in satellite of the 56 Dean Street sexual-health clinic, part of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. It was the world’s first clinic to offer routine HIV test results within six hours – a revolution in prevention. In its first decade it delivered over 520,000 HIV tests, and the transmission rate in its catchment fell by more than 80%. It is designed to look like a tech-company office rather than a medical facility. No appointment necessary.
The 56 Dean Street service has been at the heart of London’s response to HIV since the epidemic began. Sixty years after Alan Turing was prosecuted for who he loved, a clinic on this street has stopped hundreds of transmissions a year. The story of LGBT London is not only about bars; it is about survival.