Candy Bar

Candy Bar

Candy Bar

Location: 4 Carlyle Street, London, England, United Kingdom

Opened: 1996

Closed: 2014

Yet ANOTHER lesbian bar goes out of business. From the Women's Blog at The Guardian:

Lesbians mourn as Soho's Candy Bar announces it will close

London's most famous lesbian bar is to shut next year, and the security and cosiness it offers gay women will be missed

"I cried a little bit," says Neus, originally from Barcelona, now behind the bar at Candy. Like a lot of London queer girls, she is sad to hear that, at the beginning of next year, the capital's most famous lesbian bar will shut its doors for ever. Since 1996, Candy Bar's buoyant, bubblegum-pink sign has lit up Soho. In 2011, the venue's regulars were the subject of a predictably voyeuristic, yet nonetheless affable, Channel 5 documentary series, Candy Bar Girls. The venue still attracts lesbian pilgrims from all over the world and was recently DJ-ed by the likes of Haim and Chvrches.

This month, owner Gary Henshaw announced that a 50% increase in rent meant Candy could no longer afford to exist. "We tried to pass it on into lesbian hands," says assistant manager Bex Smith, "but none of the lesbian investors could afford it."

Bex moved to London from Penrith, Cumbria, and Candy was her first real taste of the gay girl scene. "I came here in my first year of university," she says. "I drank at Candy permanently for a month, then got a job here."

Early on a Thursday evening, Candy is dotted with girls. I speak to some of them about the closure. Two regulars, Raven and Emma, have taken the news particularly badly. "It sucks," says Emma. "This is our spot." Another couple, Di and Enna, had their first date at Candy.

Bex and other staff are determined to keep the bar's "by girls, for girls" ethos alive. Then again, when British gays are freer than ever to be out and proud, how important are women-only venues? Very, says Bex: "What I've always prided Candy on is that it gives women somewhere to be comfortable." True - men have dominated the gay scene since Plato's day. Candy, in its creditable 17-year stand, has continually sought to challenge that. "You can't necessarily go into any straight pub and kiss your girlfriend, because you know you're going to get stares," says Bex. "Women can come here and be who they want to be."

"Lesbians are more relaxed about where they go out," says Sandra Davenport. She DJed and promoted Candy for two years, before leaving earlier this year. According to her, while weekend girls' nights thrive, lesbians aren't so bothered about where they go for a casual drink during the week. Ironically then, it is the gradual acceptance of queer women into the mainstream that has made the lesbian bar an unsustainable business model. Lesbian bars are a remnant of a sapphic subculture perhaps more relevant to Weimar Berlin than modern-day London.

Having said that, like Bex, Sandra is sure that the security and cosiness that Candy Bar offers gay women will be missed. Neus spent her first London New Year's Eve in Candy Bar, with her mum. And that's one of Candy's most wonderfully bizarre characteristics – it's a rare breed of mum-friendly gay bar. But it wasn't always so sweet. When Sandra started as the bar's promoter in 2011, she was overwhelmed by what she had taken on. "I remember looking at the bar staff – they were leaning over and snogging customers, and messing about behind the bar. I thought: 'Oh my God, I've taken over Coyote Ugly.' I was panicking, thinking: 'What have I done?' The walls were the most hideous shade of pink I'd ever seen.

"I think people were still scared of that pink for years," says Sandra. But, through Henshaw's new ownership and Sandra's promotion, Candy went from puce and underpopulated to black and bustling. Meanwhile, Channel 5's Candy Bar Girls boosted the bar's popularity. "It got people talking about Candy again, when no one had talked about it in a positive way for so, so long," says Sandra.

London lesbians certainly have a love-hate relationship with Candy. "A certain kind of girl won't come here," says Bex, "They see it as cheesy." But she and Sandra insist that its spirit will live on.

Polly's

Polly's (1915)

Polly's 

Location: 137 MacDougal Street, New York, New York, USA from 1913 to 1915; then at 147 West 4th Street from 1915 to 1917

Opened:1913

Closed: 1917

I first found out about Polly's in a brief history/timeline of New York's gay bars. It was published in New York Magazine back in January 2013.

1912-1919: Members of Heterodoxy, a feminist club “for unorthodox women,” meet regularly at Polly’s (137 MacDougal St.), a restaurant run by anarchist Polly Holladay. It becomes a hangout for notable lesbians, including Katherine Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Irwin.

Fortunately, Ephemeral New York tells us more about Polly's, though they don't really discuss the lesbian or feminist connection except in passing.

Polly’s MacDougal Street hangout

Looks like a jolly crowd inside Polly’s restaurant, at 137 MacDougal Street, around 1915. Polly Holladay was an anarchist who opened her eatery when Greenwich Village hit its bohemian heights in the teens.

The place was an instant hit. The artistically minded and politically active—such as Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, and Emma Goldman—were regulars. Polly’s moved around the block in 1919, closing for good not long after, about the time when the Village’s bohemian rep made it a favorite for tourists.

The building that housed Polly’s has attracted a lot of attention lately. New York University, which owns 133-139 MacDougal, wants to demolish most of it and put a new structure inside the old facade.

That’s not sitting well with local activists, who note that such a historic building—it formed the epicenter of an artistic movement that included Eugene O’Neill’s Provincetown Playhouse, the Liberal Club, and the Heterodoxy Club (a feminist group)—should be preserved.

Notice that this Greenwich Village walking tour guide also mentions the former Polly's, but says nothing about any women there other than the owner. Unfortunately, I find this is true of a lot of walking tours--the history of women as it interwines with a particular place is typically ignored.

Here's more about the Heterodoxy Club. This selection is from a longer piece on "The New Woman."

The Heterodoxy Club

One example of this new feminism was the Heterodoxy Club of Greenwich Village, a group of 25 women coming together in 1912. The club met at regular Saturday meetings, and was a consciousness-raising group before term was invented. The members of the club were inward-looking and individualistic despite their ideology of women's social awakening and concern with social tumult around them. Their purpose was individual psychic freedom. Said Marie Jenny Howe, leader of Heterodoxy Club and a middle-aged nonpracticing minister and wife of noted Progressive municipal reformer Frederic Howe, "We intend simply to be ourselves, not just our little female selves, but our whole big human selves." Feminism stood for self-development as contrasted with self-sacrifice or submergence in family. The feminists of Heterodoxy Club were all highly educated women, with either formal education in colleges and graduate school or informal education in labor or socialist movements. They were able to assert individuality in livelihood, personal relationships, habits of dress and living.

Women & Children First

Women & Children First

Women & Children First 

Location: 5233 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Opened: 1979

Closed: 2013

Women & Children First isn't officially lost yet, but it is certainly in danger, despite the owners' reassurances. 

From the Windy City Times: 

Longtime feminist bookstore for sale by Ross Forman, Windy City Times 2013-10-07

There's a "For Sale" sign hanging at Women & Children First, the lesbian-owned bookstore that has been a Chicago fixture for about 34 years ago and in the Andersonville neighborhood since 1990. The 3,400-square-foot store is "debt-free, and has a great staff, a committed manager, and a dedicated publicist," Women & Children First said in an ad in Bookselling This Week. The store is "in the heart of Andersonville, a thriving neighborhood of indie retailers and restaurants, just north of Wrigley Field. Great community support in a diverse neighborhood. Increased sales in the past two years." Ann Christophersen and Linda Bubon Linda Bubon, 62, said the decision to sell the bookstore, which she co-owns with Ann Christophersen, 64, has been gradual, something they have been considering for about a year. "For a while, we were talking with an employee who was interested in taking over the store. Her situation has changed somewhat," thus that will not materialize, Bubon said. Their for-sale announcement was done around the Heartland Fall Forum, Bubon said. The event was held Oct. 3-5 in Chicago, and is a venue for booksellers, publishers, and all those who work in the bookselling industry to get together to strengthen and celebrate independent bookselling throughout the Greater Midwest, according to the event's website. "We don't see this as a fast transition," Bubon said. "We really would like to sell the store to like-minded feminists who want to keep it going as a feminist and children's bookstore, appreciate what we've created, the alliances we've made … someone, or multiple owners, who will continue with fresh ideas." There is no timetable for when a sale has to be completed, Bubon said. "There's no emergency, no crisis. Both of us are just recognizing our limitations, and it's due to nothing but age. "Both of us still care deeply about the store, and we'd even like to continue working part-time [after selling ownership]. But we'd like to see a younger owner, or owners, so they can take the store into the future." Bubon said the store has had "small, but significant, increases in sales the last two years." She did not state the asking-price for the store.  Bubon confirmed that they will not simply close the bookstore if no new owners are finalized. "I just don't think that's a possibility," she said. "The store is thriving, loved in Andersonville, in the gay community. We have already had several interested parties come forward, and we are meeting with interested parties over the next few weeks. "I don't think there's any chance that we'd close it." Nor will they sell to someone not interested in continuing the bookstore. "Ann and I have talked about this at length, and we're quite on the same page: Women & Children First needs to continue as Women & Children First," Bubon said. Lynn Mooney has been the manager at Women & Children First since last January, and her role includes training employees, part of the ordering, publicity, and more. "There isn't a ton of money to be made in book selling, but there is a satisfaction that one has an influence over the next generation. And that satisfaction is something you cannot buy," Bubon said. "There are plenty of people who still want to read physical books [as opposed to reading on a Kindle or similar device.]" Bubon said, in retirement, she is considering expanding her work on the local theatre scene and maybe also involved in politics, perhaps to lobby for important issues that affect free speech, she said.

The Black Watch

Downtown Los Angeles (1940s)

The Black Watch

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

Opened/Closed: 1940s

Almost no information is readily available on the Black Watch. The only reference I have found to it is in Martin Turnbull's Hollywood Places:

The Black Watch – downtown L.A. (lesbian bar, listed in the 1949 Gay Girl’s Guide)

But it is certainly a very cool name. Very noirish. 

Novak's

Novak's 

Location: 4121 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Opened: 1996

Closed: June 30, 2013

More from the Great Lesbian Bar Die-Off. Although I have read in other sources that Novak's had pretty much ceased to function as a lesbian bar by the end. From the STL Beacon:

Reflection: Novak's bar steps out -- with DOMA and in history

In Nation

By Nancy Fowler, Beacon arts reporter

6:42 am on Thu, 06.27.13

When Novak’s lesbian bar opened in 1996, same-sex sex was illegal, marriage equality was unheard of and I was a suburban stay-at-home mom, married to a man.

Curiosity compelled me to drive my white Aerostar minivan from Town and Country to Manchester Avenue in the city to see it for myself. The shame around even being curious about lesbian relationships made me bear down on the gas pedal a little harder as I whizzed past what was then known as Novak’s Fox Hole.

It would be a year before Ellen DeGeneres came out. And around the time Ellen declared, "Yep, I’m Gay!" on the cover of "Time" magazine, I declared "Maybe, I’m Gay!" — to myself.

Soon after, I strolled through the lesbian-looking glass of Novak’s, at 4121 Manchester Ave., to actually experience this wondrous, scary place where women danced and drank together and even kissed.

On Sunday, June 30 — Pride weekend Sunday — we will kiss this fabled institution goodbye. St. Louis’ iconic lesbian gathering place is shutting its doors. “I’m retiring,” Nancy Novak posted on the bar and grill’s Facebook page. Closing the post, Novak declares, “Let’s celebrate!!”

The celebration, the fun, the games were always at Novak’s. Drag shows, washer tournaments, karaoke, Pride brunch, Valentine’s Day, beer pong, celebrity dunking-booth fundraisers — you name it, it happened there. The fun began to draw gay men, straight friends and eventually everyone.

Nancy Novak

Novak’s was also the scene of countless individual dramas. Many a "You-kissed-my-girlfriend!" fight broke out on Novak’s dance floor. Many a good cry was had in the bathroom. Many a "Who’s THAT girl?" turned into a romantic evening, perhaps a relationship.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of photos of Novak’s regulars literally framed the good — and bad — times, recording Novak’s history on its walls. It’s a history that dovetails with the nation’s.

When Vermont became the first state to legalize civil unions in 2000, it was drinks all around at Novak’s. When the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 struck down the laws that criminalized same-sex relations, the beer flowed and the crowds cheered at Novak’s.

When Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, the clink-clink of glasses reverberated at the new across-the-street location of Novak’s. When Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell went down in 2010, it was bottoms up at Novak’s.

And Wednesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a portion of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), the liquor again flowed at Novak’s — in a kind of a circle. DOMA, enacted the year Novak’s opened in 1996, met its demise just days before Novak’s will.

Like a cultural bookend, DOMA defines the age of Novak’s. From the early days of this one-man/one-woman legislation to the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in 12 states and counting and the District of Columbia, Novak’s has borne witness to, and provided refuge from, the roller coaster of what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender in this country and in Missouri.

Now that Novak’s will be no more, it’s not clear where we’ll go to one day celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage in Missouri. Maybe a new owner will re-open it, maybe they’ll even keep the name. But it will be a different place. Nancy Novak, the heart of Novak’s, first opened the bar at the urging of friends who knew the party was always at Nancy’s.

So Novak’s is closing. Ellen’s California marriage to Portia will be legal at the federal level after Wednesday's high court ruling. My Canadian marriage to my partner still doesn’t mean anything in Missouri but it will someday. Progress marches forward, leaving behind the joy, the sorrow, the bittersweetness — and a whole lot of great memories. And photos.

Revival of "Women Only" Space in India

Usually I post on lost womyn's spaces, because that is the predominant theme in the west--one of loss. But in other areas of the world, women don't shy away from taking control of their own space. In fact, they are increasingly demanding it as both a strategy to fight patriarchal violence and as an end in itself.

 
Interesting that so many of the comments treat women's space as a false either/or. We can either develop spaces for women where they are safe OR prosecute rapists, educate men, etcetera. 

If anybody wants to spend their time trying to teach the menfolk that it's not nice to kill and mutilate women, be my guest. Plead with them all you like on how they need to take responsibility for their own actions. I just haven't seen that all the lectures and moral hand wringing have done much good so far.

Meanwhile, developing women's institutions, businesses, transportation, and parks is an excellent place to start. It gives women breathing room, space to organize and talk, and the time to make strategy. It puts the power and initiative in OUR hands, and not in the hands of the men. 

From the Washington Post:

In wake of gang rape, India sees rise of ‘women only’ taxis, buses and parks

By Annie Gowen, Published: September 27

NEW DELHI — In the months since a gruesome gang rape riveted India, a “women-only” culture has been on the rise here, with Indians increasingly seeking out women-only buses, cabs, travel groups and hotel floors.

One city is preparing to open a women-only park. And in November, the government is launching a women-only bank it hopes will empower women financially.

In a country where reported sexual violence is increasing — despite heightened attention to the problem — many say the women-only spaces are a welcome refuge from lewd looks, groping and unwanted male attention. The concept appeals to women across a broad spectrum of Indian society, including a 60-year-old named Sarita, who recently traveled to New Delhi from a village in Maharashtra by train and said she still had to squabble with male passengers who tried to sit next to her in the women’s coach.

“It’s the ways of men,” Sarita said. “They’re not good. How can we coexist?”

But critics argue that the trend toward separation threatens the gains that women have made in education and access to new career fields over the past two decades, as the economy has rapidly modernized. It’s the men who need to change their behavior, they argue, not women.

“It’s appalling,” said Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “It’s a way for a patriarchal society to announce it’s not going to protect women. It’s simply going to segregate women and restrict their freedom, instead of securing it.”

“Must banks too go pink?” the headline of an editorial in the Hindu, a leading newspaper, asked recently.

Some women-only spaces — in trains, on Delhi’s Metro system — already had existed before December, when a 23-year-old physical therapy student was gang-raped and injured so severely she later died. The country’s male-dominated culture is rooted in religious customs and societal norms that date back centuries, and the sexes were long kept separate in schools and temples.

But the Dec. 16 rape and subsequent death penalty sentences for the four attackersdrew intense attention to the problem of sexual violence against women in India, where reports of rape have increased more than 25 percent in recent years, statistics show.

Some women believe the harsh sentences will have little impact and feel the harassment problem is getting worse, forcing them to retreat.

A scramble for change

After the gang rape, state governments across India scrambled to do something — anything — that would calm a public increasingly agitated about sexual violence. They installed help lines for crime victims, more street lighting, better surveillance cameras.

But it was the idea of creating more safe places for women that really caught the attention of bureaucrats. The city of Coimbatore, in the southern part of the country, announced plans to spruce up a decrepit park and limit it to women, who would also have access to a gym with a female fitness trainer. Localities from Assam to Odisha created women-only bus lines. The ministry of tourism began pushing even small hotels to add female-only floors.

And the government announced plans for a $161 million banking system exclusively for women, the Bhartiya Mahila Bank, with a predominantly female staff and 25 branches across the country. It is set to be launched Nov. 19, the birthday of Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister and the country’s most revered female icon.

A spokesman for the finance ministry, D.S. Malik, said that the new bank is a “major step” toward correcting the gender inequity in credit and banking in India, where only 26 percent of women have a bank account, compared with 44 percent of men.

But some women’s scholars and advocates don’t believe segregating the sexes is empowering, saying it could have a negative impact in the long run.

“The attempt is to shrink women into limited spaces,” said Ranjana Kumari, the director of the Center for Social Research in New Delhi. “Women still have to come out and walk on the same streets and work in the same offices and shop in the same markets as men.” Limiting such spaces out of concern for women’s safety “is not at all a good message,” she said. “It encourages segregation and more violence.”

‘It’s not really safe’

One recent evening, Aishwarrya Kapoor, 20, a recent college graduate with a sociology degree, wanted to attend a birthday party at a club near a mall in downtown Delhi. As it happened, it was the same mall at which the victim in the gang rape had watched the movie “Life of Pi” with a male friend before heading home on a bus, where the attack occurred.

Kapoor’s mother was adamant: The young woman could go to the party only if she hired a cab driven by a female for the night.

“Because in India, even though we are in the 21st century, with any [male] cab driver it’s not really safe,” the young woman said.

The company Kapoor hired, Sakha Cabs for Women, was founded in 2010 in Delhi and now has 12 female drivers, with 62 others in training. After the gang rape, its founders say, business increased 50 to 60 percent, and they’re often booked several days in advance.

One of the young drivers, a college student who goes by one name, Geeta, 21, said she thinks her female clients feel more secure traveling with her than with a male.

And yet.

“I think it’s horrible women have to find watertight compartments, so to say,” Geeta said as she shifted gears and sped through Delhi’s clamorous traffic, horns honking in her wake. At 4 feet 9 inches tall and 99 pounds, she has to sit on top of a tapestry pillow to see over the steering wheel.

“There should be women in all walks of life and all fields of life,” she said. “Where we don’t feel isolated.”

Suhasini Raj contributed to this report.

Garbo for Women

Apparently defunct website for Garbo for Women

Garbo for Women

Location: Stavangerweg 900, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Opened: January 2007

Closed: ?

This fairly incoherent account about Garbo for Women comes from a website devoted to all things Greta Garbo:

In Amsterdam (Holland) there is lesbian bar called Garbo for woman. Garbo has been set up to allow  lesbian - and bisexual women to meet other women. This is possible by dancing with each other or drink with each other a drink.

Hmm. Methinks somebody had a drink (or two or three) before scribbling this out. Anyway, a link is provided for the Garbo for Women website, but it's dead. Which made me initially suspect that Garbo for Women was a lesbian bar that is no more. 

But at nightours.com, it is claimed that this isn't (wasn't?) really a bar at all, but more of an occasional party thingy. Perhaps it was one of those lesbian places that went "gay" or "queer" and then lamely tossed off one party a month for the ladies?

Every 3rd Saturday of the month. Special women-only dance party. Women are mostly 25+, bit mixed.

Fodor's says something similar:

Garbo for Women (From Facebook)

This women-only dance night for lesbians and bisexuals takes place every third Saturday of the month at the popular bar-restaurant Strand West. If you like, you can also have a bite to eat beforehand.

But now we are provided a link that shows that Garbo still exists--at least in the compromised party form. 

Their facebook page has lots of neat pictures and illustrations, but if you aren't fluent in Dutch, there isn't much material you can read. 

Here is one of the few first hand reports I have found. This is from January 2011:

I found it so interesting that young girls in their late teens and early 20′s are getting the courage to come to places like Garbo’s and be “present” in their authentic identity at such a young age – but I found it just as fascinating that so many ladies over 60 were there!  At one moment, I must have been in the granny section, as I looked around and saw many ladies in early, mid and late 60′s enjoying themselves. They looked like everyone’s Oma – in a lesbian dance club!

Overall a thumbs up for Garbo for Women New Years and 4 year anniversary party.

Sounds like a neat place. That is if it ever existed as place--and not just as a once-in-a-while socializing "gift" to women.