The Gateways club was the major lesbian nightclub located at 239 Kings Road on the corner of Bramerton Street, Chelsea, London, England. It was the longest surviving such club in the world, first opening in 1930 and legally becoming a members club in 1936. It eventually closed on Saturday 21 September 1985 after some years of only opening for a few hours each weekend.
The final non-public night was the following Monday, as the Kenric lesbian group had booked the venue for a social event, and some members who had attended for many years removed the nameplate from the front door as a souvenier, amongst other features and fittings.
Early history
Ted Ware(1898 - 1979) took over the club in 1943 after allegedly winning it in a Poker Game. Ted was a well travelled man who, unusually for the time had raised his son from his second marriage on his own. He allowed the club to become a meeting place for the Chelsea Arts Club and was welcoming to the wide variety of people who lived in the area. Both Gay and Lesbian Clientelle were regulars in the club as well as Black Carribean people and other minority groups that were discriminated against elsewhere[1].
Ted married Gina Cerrato(1922-2001)[2], a glamourous actress, in July 1953 when he was 55 and she was 31 years old. Gina had been born in Italy in 1922, but had grown up in Cardiff. She came to London to persue her acting career and had appeared in several films, before meeting Ted in The Gateways in 1947. She and Ted had one daughter together, before Gina gradually took over running the club during the late 1950's[1].
Smithy(1933-1993) first arrived at the Gateways in 1959 and eventually went on to co-manage the club with Gina. She was originally from California and as a member of the American Airforce, she was posted to a base in Ruislip, London . She decided that she wanted to stay in London with Gina and Ted and had an arranged marriage in 1962, which enabled her to stay in the United Kingdom[1].
Gateways lesbian life
"The Gates" was one of the few places in the UK where lesbians could meet openly during the 40's, 50's and 60's. Lesbians and bisexuals flocked to the Gateways, as did curious heterosexuals, and by 1967 Gina made the club women-only[1].
During the mid 1960's many lesbians in the club stopped emulating male and female roles. However, the club was still a haven for butch/femme lesbian couples during the era of hardline separatist feminism of the late 1970s and first half of the 1980s. The bar owners worked hard to keep the lesbian politics out of the bar and Gina asked them to take thier debates elsewhere[1].
In its heyday in the 1960's it was popular with artists and celebrites such as Diana Dors and Dusty Springfield[3]. At this point it was entirely run by Ted Ware's wife, Gina, with the help of Smithy.
The club was described as having a green door with a steep staircase leading down to a windowless cellar bar that was only 35ft x 18ft[1]. The walls had been painted by local artists and their was a constant, smokey atmosphere[3]. The layout included a bar that was located at one end of the room, with the toilets and a cloakroom at the other.
Clubs and Groups
In 1963 the Minorities Research Group, the first Nationwide Lesbian Group in the United Kingdom was started. Members were recruited from amongst the Gateways clientelle and its publication Arena Three was sold openly inside the bar.
The first Kenric group also used to meet regulary in the Gateways club on Monday nights[1], when the bar was otherwise closed. Kenric is now a nationwide organisation for Lesbian and Bisexual women that is still running.
In the media
The life of this large cellar club was central to the lesbian novel The Microcosm (1966) by Maureen Duffy.
In 1967, when homosexual reform was about to be passed by parlement the BBC aired two programs called Man Alive: Consenting Adults[4]. This program featured an interview with some women at the Gateways Club.
The club also appeared as a backdrop (including extended scenes filmed inside the club and featuring regular club-goers) in the 1968 film The Killing of Sister George starring Beryl Reid, Susannah York and Coral Browne, which was one of the earliest mainstream films to feature lesbianism. Filming in the club took place over seven days from the 9th-16th June, 1968.
The song Green Door was possibly inspired by the club.[5]
Further reading
- Gardiner, Jill (2003). From The Closet to the Screen: Women of the Gateways 1945-85. Pandora Press. ISBN 0-86358-427-6.
- The Independent -Obiturary for Gina Ware
- Lesbian Locations: The Production of Lesbian Bar Space in "The Killing of Sister George" - Kelly Hankin Cinema Journal, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 3-27
References
- ^ a b c d e f g From The Closet to the Screen: Women of the Gateways 1945-85 - Gardiner, Jill ISBN 0-86358-427-6
- ^ Gina Ware obiturary - Independent Online
- ^ a b The Old Dyke
- ^ Man Alive on the BFI
- ^ Stephanie Theobold Great lesbian songs? Here's our top five The Guardian 6 March 2007
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