Chelmsford gay bar

Serving with Pride 🏳️‍🌈

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and gay partners. You can check out at any time. More info. Bar Plus is set to have a soft launch on June 15, where it will be open from Wednesdays to Chelmsford initially, with gay taking place on Monday and Tuesday inside and outside the building.

Kirsty, who has previously worked as a publican as well as a DJ and events manager, said it has been a "whirlwind" and only had the takeover confirmed on Sunday May 26having been searching for a pub to run herself since December. Read more: Tributes to 'beautiful' teenage girl 'loved by all' tragically killed in Essex crash.

Read more: Hidden gem Essex bakery where you can get lost in all the delicious sweet treats. She said: "I've done some pub entertainment, I'm a DJ and do quizzes and karaoke. I was doing some work in the Star and Garter and the staff say it's closing down because the licensee has decided to give it up. I contacted the owners of the pub and no one else had come forward, and they were very pleased with the direction I wanted to take it in.

Most pubs you're a tenant and then its run by pub companies, but this is more privately owned leaseholder. I think they're pleased someone is taking it bar that knows what they're doing and can make a success of it. Kirsty has worked as a travelling DJ for several years, but said it has always felt like "moving home" all the time due to the amount of equipment needing to be transported.

She said that since the Covid pandemic, there are fewer dedicated places for LGBT people to attend in Essex, chelmsford wanted to offer something for them in Chelmsford. She continued: "Being transgender and after Covid, so many things in Essex like support clubs and groups supporting transgenders just disappeared. There was quite a few that went through a lot of mental health issues because they couldn't get to see bar - that was also nationwide for everyone.

After Covid happened its made people more nervous for people to throwing any money into a venue or a club when its so difficult to build the numbers and break even. Unless you go into London, there are some nice places in London near Soho that bar great for transgender people, but you have to get the train all the way in.

Kirsty felt it important to have a LGBTQ-led venue run by chelmsford within the same community, to ensure it doesn't feel like a "token" aspect of the service. She also said that pubs on the whole face a difficult challenge in with spiralling running costs and maintaining customer levels.

She said: gay think pubs are really struggling themselves; I go into pubs all the time and its really difficult to grow any kind of customer loyalty anymore. I think again with Covid people have learned to drink at home, and have friends round. Pubs aren't being used as much, and the economy doesn't help either.

You've got to offer something unique, otherwise what you're doing is you're just competing with all the other pubs. The daytime is gonna be more of a cafe style, somewhere where women can come, and try to revolve it if I can. We've got some brick-built outhouses; the Star and Garter has a passageway through to the back, and it used to be an inn where horse-drawn carriages would come through.

I can't offer anything professional, but I can be a listening ear; sometimes all you need is someone to listen to what you have to say. So hopefully it would be good for business but also be a service.