Dean Street Express: How the clinic redefined LGBTQ+ sexual health in just 10 years
As the Dean Street Express LGBTQIA+ sexual health clinic celebrates its 10th anniversary, GAY TIMES revisits some of its biggest successes.
WORDS BY CONOR CLARK PHOTOGRAPHY BY YOSEF PHELAN “The service isn’t just an NHS clinic, it’s like a community centre in the heart of Soho that serves and represents the needs of the community,” says Jon Clark, Clinic Manager of Dean Street Express, the LGBTQIA+ sexual health clinic he has worked at for the last decade.
When it first opened its doors in February 2014, it did so to a different world: PrEP wasn’t yet available on the NHS, there was no home testing and ending new cases of HIV felt impossible.
Things are still far from perfect today, but the team at Dean Street Express has played an undeniably fundamental role in improving how LGBTQIA+ people treat sexual health by providing a safe space where they can access support without fear or judgement.
