ABOUT

The Queen’s English is a publication aimed to educate and curate information surrounding the language of Polari. A language which graced the tongues of some merchants, criminals, theatre folk and members of the circus, Polari was well recognized in the underbelly of society.

Adopted by homosexuals sometime in the early 1930’s, it exists as a symbol of just how difficult it was to traverse queer life in the nineteenth century. With sexual acts between two men deemed illegal by the state, Polari was used as code for queer men to speak amongst their tribe without fear of persecution.