Pubs and clubs

LGBT people have met and socialised in dozens of pubs and clubs in Bristol over the years. We’ve listed known venues by approximate date of opening (up to circa 2000 – more recent venues will be added later).

You can help with additions and corrections. Tell us about the places you visited. When did you go? (precise years if you can). Who managed them? Did they have cabaret, live music, DJ, karaoke, pub quizzes? Who were the regulars – gay men, lesbians, TV/TS? Tell us amusing anecdotes and about the characters who propped up the bar. Do you have old photos we can beg or borrow?

Gay clubs

• Moulin Rouge:  72 Worrall Road, Clifton, BS8. Circa 1968/9 – October 1976.
  First openly gay club in Bristol, opening soon after the legalization of male homosexuality in England & Wales in 1967.
• King’s:  17 Prince Street. 1975 – c. late 1970s?
  Large club on three floors. Sold and reopened as Smith’s in about 1978.
• Oasis:  14-16 Park Row, Bristol, BS.  c. 1975 – 1993/4.
  Bristol’s major gay club for men until the 1990s.
• 49 Club (later the Top Deck):  20 Christmas Steps, central Bristol, BS1.  c. 1977 – c. 1996/7.
  Small upstairs bar at the bottom of Christmas Steps.
• Chantelle’s:  135 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, BS8. 1977-1982?
  A lesbian club from about 1977 to 1982.
• The Scarlet Coat: 1 Fiennes Court (off Fairfax Street and Union Street), BS1.  c. 1985-90
  Small lesbian club near Broadmead shopping centre.
• Just:  1 Fiennes Court, Fairfax Street.  1994-9
  Gay men’s club in the former Scarlet Coat premises.
• Flamingo Joe’s / Club Leo:  28 St Nicholas Street, BS1. 1993 – c.1998?
  A big dance club situated in the gap between two former gay venues, the Radnor Hotel and the Elephant.
• Winn’s: 25 West Street, Old Market, BS .  1999- ?
  Opened in Autumn 1999 in former bank premises, one of the first clubs in the newly gay Old Market area.
• Vibes: Vibes, 1 Frog Lane. 2001 – c.2009.
  A big club and popular from the start, attracting mixed age groups. Later re-opened as OMG.

Gay pubs

• Radnor Hotel:  30 St Nicholas Street, BS1. c. 1925? – c. 1976.
  Known to have been gay in 1938 and possibly much earlier. The only gay pub in Bristol we know of before the 1970s.
• Ship: Redcliffe Hill c. 1965-8.
  Peggy Hancock’s regulars from the Radnor Hotel followed her to the The Ship when she opened the disused rear snug as a cocktail bar about 1965.
• Ship Inn: 7-8 Lower Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5BJ.  c. 1973-7?
  A popular gay pub during the 1970s.
• Elephant: 20 St Nicholas Street. May 1973 – 2006.
  For many years the principal pub for gay men and lesbians.
• Griffin: 41 Colston Street, BS1. 1987 – 2010.
  Small Victorian pub on a quirky triangular site; gay from 1987 to 2010.
• Queen’s Shilling: 9 Frogmore Street, BS1. 1992 – present.
  Opening in 1992 the Queen’s Shilling quickly attracted a new crowd of gay teens and 20s.
• Pineapple: 37 St George’s Road, BS1. 1997 – present.
  The third gay pub in the Frogmore Street area, opening in Spring 1997.

Other gay and gay-friendly  venues

There have been many gay-friendly/mixed pubs, short-lived clubs or straight clubs which ran occasional gay one-nighters. We’ve compiled a list here.

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