One of my favourite books then and now. Maps on smartphones cannot touch it. As a young lesbian living in the suburbs, the maps and streetnames meant the hope and excitement of other places and other lives.
When you are straight, you can find fun, love, lust, style in your local pubs bars and clubs. When you are lesbian or gay, you need to be more choosy and often travel long distances, working out strategies to get home via night-bus or last-train home. With the help of Time Out Magazine and City Limits Magazine the handful of women-only clubs of the 1980s were able to attract punters and establish themselves. No online listings then, these were off-the-beaten-track venues whose names held mystery and whose clubnights etched enduring memories onto many of us.
I’m working on a Google Map of the places I went to which I’ll share when it’s a bit more finished.
Please let me know about the venues you enjoyed so I can add them to the map.
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