Customers say that the popularity of a new lesbian bar in Hackney shows a need for more queer spaces in London.
La Camionera is held in the basement of Off Broadway and is a dedicated lesbian bar.
Despite no advertising or marketing, Alex Loveless, 25, the owner, claims La Camionera was visited by over 500 people during its opening evening last week.
“I had no idea, what really struck me was that I also didn’t know about 99% of them”, Loveless says.
Videos of the crowd went viral on TikTok, some being seen nearly 250,000 times.
@stephcarney Winter Pride ❄️🌈. Your past, your present, and your future. #wlw #wlwcouple #lacamionera #broadwaymarket #gaylondon #lesbiansoftiktok
Filmmaker Isobel Jones, 26, who attended the opening, described the crowd as ‘manic’ and like a ‘festival’.
She believes this unexpected popularity is due to a lack of adequate queer spaces in London – “I think they had such a successful turnout because there just isn’t anything like this, there’s only one lesbian bar left in London”.
“It’s also a club and most people over the age of about 24 don’t go there. It’s a lot of 18 year olds and clubs aren’t suitable for everyone. You also don’t want to go to a club night on a Tuesday when you’ve got work the next day”.
“There’s just been a complete lack of spaces for queer women and non binary people. That hasn’t really been addressed; we have club nights but we don’t have pub nights”.
She explained that it was hard to meet friends because of the density of the crowd. “It was mad – it was like walking into Soho. The first thing you saw was maybe over 100 people all standing outside wearing black and holding tinnies, which was quite striking. You couldn’t get to the bar, it was so busy”.
@izziejonesjourno London fields looking like Soho at 3pm on Pride (Guys bfr its a thursday). Apocalyptic launch of a pop up lesbian bar! #wlw #london #camionera #lesbianbar #lacamionera #broadwaymarket #lesbiansoftiktok #newlesbianbar #queer #londonfields #lesbian
♬ Please these gays theyre trying to murder me – Candy Moore
Several lesbian bars have closed in the last decade, like Blush Bar in Stoke Newington which closed in 2015, and the Stokey Stop, which closed in 2016. Other notable queer bars have closed recently, with Soho’s G-A-Y Late closing in December and Haggerston’s The Glory closing in January.
Queer tour guide Dan de la Motte has said that Stoke Newington is a ‘lesbian mecca’.
“There was a very high proportion of lesbian residents in Stoke Newington and a very high proportion of lesbian bars, for example, Blush Bar”, de la Motte says.
“Most of these lesbian spaces have closed down. Why have lesbian spaces in particular closed down? The answer is folks, misogyny, and the patriarchy”.
Jones said “someone needs to open a permanent space. There are lots of venues predominantly aimed towards gay men, but nothing really towards people who identify otherwise”.
Loveless said that there were not enough queer spaces in London, “especially not ones where you can sit for a nice drink”.
They also said they hope one day queer spaces “can exist in the daytime, or away from super loud music all the time. It’s nice to have a casual spot”.
Jones believes the videos went viral on TikTok because it was so ‘surreal’.
“As soon as I turned up, I thought – I need to take a video of this because this is so bizarre. It was hilarious”.
