The Lesbians of Forest Gate – Part One

About this record

The Lesbians of Forest Gate is a new play derived from interviews with lesbian, queer, bisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary people living in Forest Gate over the past six decades. Created by Emily Wollenberg, an actor, theatremaker, and bartender at Forest Tavern, The Lesbians of Forest Gate explores how friendship, love, and activism shaped a community and remain woven into the tapestry of Forest Gate to this day.

Note: Two of the eight interviewees requested that their interviews be excluded from the archives for safety purposes.

The Process:

Emily interviewed eight interview subjects in April and May 2025 to create The Lesbians of Forest Gate. Some, she met through connections with Forest Gate Pride. Others she met while working at Forest Tavern, or through word of mouth from other interview subjects.

Emily Wollenberg interviewing her second interview subject, Amanda Wright, in Amanda’s house in Forest Gate. May, 2025. Photo by Emily Wollenberg

The Interview Subjects:


Maureen O’Callaghan

She/her

Queer

Maureen O’Callaghan, 2025. Photo by Emily Wollenberg

Maureen was born in Epping and raised between Ireland and Essex, navigating a strict upbringing, Catholic school nuns, and complicated family dynamics. Her rebellious spirit—and a desire to be closer to the party scene—led her to move to Forest Gate in 2000. In her story, she opens up about her mixed identity, experiences in the Black lesbian scene, the loss of her brother to HIV, and the deep bond she shares with her cat, Flossy.

Maureen as a baby in Ireland. Photo courtesy of Maureen O’Callaghan

I was really excited if somebody said that I looked like their sister or someone because I wasn't seeing people who looked like me.

Maureen in the late ‘90s. Photo courtesy of Maureen O’Callaghan
Maureen in the early ‘00s. Photo courtesy of Maureen O’Callaghan

(On being Queer) I feel like I never knew it was an option for me, because if I'd known it was an option, I would have been doing it loudly at 17 when they would have been really cringing.

A poster from Black & Gay, Back in the Day, (@blackandgaybackintheday) a digital community archive honouring and remembering Black queer life in Britain. Maureen attended one of the group’s in-person social events in 2021. Photo courtesy of Maureen O’Callaghan

The thing with women has always been really amazing and really complicated.

Maureen with her beloved cat, Flossy, 2025. Photo by Emily Wollenberg

Margarida Cândido Lopes

She/her

Queer

Margarida Cândido Lopes, 2025. Photo by Emily Wollenberg

Margarida grew up in Faro, Portugal, always knowing she was different. It wasn’t just that she was a late bloomer, a geek, or disliked male attention. At 30, she got a second chance at finding herself and embraced her queerness and interest in non-monogamy. Hear her share about her love of spreadsheets, moving to the UK in 2017, drumming with her samba group, and becoming the unapologetic lesbian weirdo she’d always wanted to be.

Margarida wearing her grandfather’s glasses in the early ‘80s. Photo courtesy of Margarida Lopes
Margarida on a trip to Paris in 2010. Photo courtesy of Margarida Lopes
Margarida on a trip to Berlin in 2012. Photo courtesy of Margarida Lopes

I think adolescence was quite brutal on me. [...] I didn’t know I wasn’t straight, so I was trying to do the straight thing. [...] But that wasn’t working. Nothing was working.

Margarida during the Festival Poesia e Companhia (Poetry Festival) in Faro, Portugal, which she co-organised in 2014. Photo by Pedro Conceição
Margarida with the feminist performance group she led in Porto in 2016. The group presented a collected performance at As Rosinhas, then took the show to the Jornadas Feministas in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Photo courtesy of Margarida Lopes

It’s just untethered joy being on the drums.

Margarida shortly after shaving her head for the first time. Winter, 2024. Photo courtesy of Margarida Lopes

I had lost a big chunk of my prime life not living my true self, and I didn’t know how to catch up.

Margarida with her partner Natasha. The pair attended a wedding in the Algarve on Portugal's southern coast. August, 2025. Photo courtesy of Margarida Lopes

I think connections are very precious and particular and unique; I think love is bountiful.

Read Part Two here

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September 2025