#public hiouses

[scotianostra]

Gay Edinburgh.

Edinburgh has a number of bars that cater for what is called The Pink Pound, but that has not always been the case.

The Kenilworth on Rose street is generally accepted as the first gay friendly bar in Edinburgh, but back in the 70's it must have been a difficult time for same sex couples to find somewhere to socialise. The Kenilworth is popular city centre haunt and was well-known as a place where homosexual men and women in the city could meet up and mingle in an era when being openly gay could technically see you fined and even imprisoned.

A change in management in the bar saw the LGBT community feel less welcome, but around the same time Edinburgh's first bar to openly welcome the gay community open in The New Town. The Laughing Duck on Howe Street in its 80s heyday was a haunt of drag queens and a then unknown act called Lily Savage entertained the crowds. I can only remember being in the bar once, my sister was a part time bar maid there. The "Duck" closed it's doors in 1994.

In the early 90's my sisters friend Douglas Cruikshank hosted a gay night at Manhattan's housed in part of the Playhouse Theatre, where the "Gay Quarter" still thrives. Lily Savage used to spend nights at the the flat they shared, and performed at nights in the venue. Douglas then took on a bar called " Millionaires" on Niddry Street. My brother and a few of our friends used to use Millionaires during day time hours, where it was generally a straight crowd, but at night time the bar turned into "Millies" probably Edinburgh's first gay night club. My sister used to manage the bar for Douglas, as well as working fill time during the day, and energetic lassie, she got on well with everyone and did the two jobs until she discovered she was pregnant, at 7 months gone she had little choice but to give up the job for a time, but went back to the job after her boy was born, relying on me to look after the baby most of the time.

I moved to France and then England and was away from Edinburgh for around ten years and by the time I returned in the early noughties the gay village at Greenside place had been firmly established.

The bars included GHQ on Picardy Place was the energized focal, point of Edinburgh's pink triangle till it closed in 2012, Planet Bar  on the opposite side is a very popular place, CC Blooms and Habana al vied for the Pink Pound, at Greenside. Habana however has closed, the whole frontage of this part of the building i clad in scaffolding, I am not sure what the ned product will be, but the bar will no doubt be missed.

In this day and age bars, in general are all gay friendly, some around Edinburgh hang n to their proud LGBT links though, The Regent, at Abbeyhill and The Dog House at Clerk Street on the Southside trade on this reputation, but cater for a very mixed crowd. Dog House has opened a second bar on Leith Walk, look out for a wee post about that later.