Rebel Borough

We titled our London Borough of Culture bid “Rebel Borough” celebrating Haringey’s working-class heritage, strong history of grassroots changemakers and everyday rebels.

Throughout the decades our borough has played an important role in battling discrimination and celebrating equality.

We were at the forefront of the fight for equality for LGBTQ+ people in the 1980s, standing together against Section 28 and forming the UK’s first Lesbian and Gay Unit to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights. Haringey was the first borough in Europe to elect a Black council leader, Bernie Grant, the Haringey-based George Padmore Institute holds important archives on the struggle for racial equality in Haringey and Black British culture.