Women's night at The Grosvenor
1980
“The Grosvenor was a big hotel on the Hagley Road with a swimming pool out the back, it was a beautiful privately owned club and they had a [women’s night] and you could go for Sunday lunch because they had a really nice restaurant. The gay blokes who owned it did it beautifully, the food was terrific and a lot of gay blokes would take their mum there for Sunday lunch. It was very contained, very male, but it would be because that was the consciousness of gay men. We didn’t go clubbing all the time, we were too busy changing the world, but if you went there on [women’s night] it would be obvious from the ambience of that group. The butch women would be wearing Foster Brothers suits and clothing and you’d be afraid to ask anybody for a dance in case you got your head punched. Now I don’t know, I’ve been to pubs in the (gay) village a few times and it looks different to me. I don’t think women would stand for that now”.
Contributed by: Jean Turley, 72