Brody's Notes... Oldest Welsh Gay Bar Slated For Closure Stirs Campaign To Save It

Kings Cross Pub   Photo By Wales Online

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) OCT 9 | In the wake of an announcement made by the British pub & restaurant management group Mitchells & Butlers last week, that a pub that has been a landmark spot in the Gay community in the city of Cardiff, South Wales- Kings Cross was slated for possible closure, the greater LGBT community immediately reacted with a campaign to save it.

A Facebook page was put up online within hours of confirmation of the news announcement by M&B spokesman Andrew Roache. In an interview with journalist Peter Law from the Welsh newspaper South Wales Echo-Wales Online, Roache confirmed that the firm was reshaping itself towards being a food-focused business. 

"This means our remaining late night drinks-led pubs and bars, including the Kings Cross, are currently being reviewed with regard to converting them into one of our core brands," he said.

Kings Cross is located in the heart of the historic Cardiff, Wales city centre and has had a very long association with the Gay community stretching back before homosexuality was legalised in the United Kingdom in 1967.  The pub had a separate back entrance to a 'special room' and was considered a safe haven for the Gay community.
Law notes:

An institution on the corner of Mill Lane and Caroline Street since 1873, the pub has been a focal point of the local gay scene for four decades, located opposite the new St David’s shopping centre, the pub is now sitting on prime real estate following the multi-million pound redevelopment of the city centre. Its regulars fear that if it were to reopen with as a restaurant element strictly, it would lose its identity and reputation for being Gay-friendly.

Speaking to the BBC News, Hayden Price, a longtime customer told a reporter:

"I don't think for a moment that this is an anti-gay move," said Mr Price. "M&B have always supported the gay community, and run five or six other gay pubs around the UK. But whether intentional or not, the effect of the planned changes will be to drive out the gay customers who've kept the pub going all these years."

Price, a regular for 20 years, said the pub had a pedigree which the owners would be foolish to cast aside, adding:

"I'm sure their thinking is based on economics; though it's very bad economics. St David's already has umpteen restaurants, and competition will be savage; whereas there are only four or five gay pubs in Cardiff, and in its current form the Kings is thriving.

But whether intentional or not, the effect of the planned changes will be to drive out the gay customers who've kept the pub going all these years."