London’s newest lesbian bar La Camionera has officially opened its doors as a permanent venue.
La Camionera – Spanish for female trucker, but also slang for butch lesbians – first opened in February in East London on a temporary basis.
Over the weekend, however, it launched as a permanent venue in Hackney, with the owners claiming it is the first FLINTA-owned [female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender] LGBTQ+ space in the capital for more than a decade.
PinkNews caught up with some of the clientele and the owners to talk about what the venue means to them.
“We’ve been lacking this space,” one person said. “This feels safe, I’ve brought quite a few of my friends here recently… I’m really looking forward to spending summer here.”
Another bar-goer said: “It almost feels like the next phase of the ‘lesbian renaissance’ in London. It means a lot to have a permanent queer women and non-binary space. Often… there’s one night of the week that’s the lesbian or the queer women night. That tends to be a week night, and it’s really far away.
“To have a permanent venue where you can come with your friends, that isn’t a club, is very exciting.”
A third patron said: “People actually investing in opening safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people, it’s really nice to see.”
One of the bar’s owners, Alex Loveless, joked that as a trans man, “the gayest thing about La Camionera is the fact that some bloke runs it”… or “all the straight men [who] come in for coffee in the morning and don’t know it’s a lesbian bar”.
La Camionera is at 243 Well Street, Hackney, E9 6RG.