Lipstick Lesbian Catch

If you’re a British lesbian, you’ll still be in mourning about the loss of the most famous lesbian bar in Great Britain, Candy Bar. Diva Magazine has called it the End of an Era!  I’ve never personally been there myself, but the way lesbians from all over the country spoke about this well-known bar made it obvious that it was deeply loved.

Aside from the obvious, this worries me for a multitude of reasons. But what worries me the most? Well, where else is there for us to go?

Mixed clubs (gays, lesbians, bisexuals, etc) are all fine and well, (and lord knows we appreciate them), but there are times when a lesbian wants to escape from a sweaty male crowd. They may be sweet-smelling, adorably gay sweaty males, but males nevertheless. We need clubs like Candy Bar to keep our lesbians happy. So are there any alternatives?

As Candy Bar Soho prided itself on being the only – and I quote – full-time lesbian bar in London, we have to look outside our capital when it comes to find fully girl-friendly alternatives.

As I reign from the North, it makes sense for me to look up there for something Sapphic. Take Manchester, for example. The city, famous for its gay scene, includes two main lesbian bars. The first, Vanilla, is a mini lesbian club of sorts. It has definitely worked as an escape from my gay male friends in the past, but it is still not ideal. With overpriced drinks and it often being over-ridden with coming-of-age eighteen year olds, the older lesbian may not really feel at home there. Then there is Coyote’s, which does cater to an older crowd, and it does have a more “grown-up” feel about it. But does it imitate the same pizzazz and wow factor as its gay counterpart, G-A-Y Manchester? Not really.

A little further South is England’s second biggest city, Birmingham. You’ll probably have all heard of Brum’s very own gay super club The Nightingale, which is, I am told, expanding northwards into Manchester to replace what will formerly be a gay bar known as Queer. However, is there anything exclusively for the lesbians? Well, there is The Fox. But ask any experienced Birmingham lesbian and they’ll tell you to avoid it. Why? Because The Fox is really nothing but a mainstream, “old man” pub, masquerading as a lesbian bar with its walls plastered in pictures of The L Word cast and Cheryl Cole.

Being a Brighton-virgin, I can hardly share my knowledge of the lesbian scene there, but surely the “gay capital” of Britain has something for the lesbians. Please, if you know anything about being a lesbian in Brighton, do let me know.

So what I’m saying is, it looks like the lesbian pubs and clubs scene is dwindling in comparison to the ever-growing homosexual male scene. Why? In my opinion, it’s because the majority of lesbian clubs are failing to draw in a crowd. Most of them are either cheesy in music taste and decor (see The Fox), or over-priced and filled with clusters of baby lesbians who are just looking for a lay. Where did all the good lesbian bars go?

Candy Bar Girls has told us at Pink Lobster Dating that they would be opening a new club…

Petition to help the lesbians of Britain in opening a fun yet reasonably priced safe haven, anyone?