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Whats the gay scene like in Reading???

Hi, I'm a 27 yr old lesbian and have recieved an offer from Reading to study zoology which I am over the moon with, the course is fab. I am wondering what the gay scene is like, cos its pretty important to me. Thanks all, any advice would be great :woo:

Reply 1

Sing-in-silence

The gay scene in Reading is based around 3 pubs/bars mainly, The Wynford, The Granby and The Malthouse. The Wynford is a decent enough pub, it has quite a variety of entertainment going on throughout the week, including drag queens, kareoke, and caberet. It is, admittedly, usually frequented by gay men, but on Tuesdays and other busy nights you get a wide variety of different people hanging out there, gay guys, lesbians and straight people. The bar staff there are lovely, and you can feel at home there whatever your age and sexuality.
http://www.wynfordarms.com/

I haven't been to the Granby that much, but it seems like a really popular bar/club. Quite expensive entry though, about £5 on nights when you have to pay. I think Friday entry is free though. It plays popular music mainly, as far as I know.
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=the+granby&init=quick#/group.php?gid=8560744924&ref=search&sid=521462342.1426877257..1

The Malthouse is also a bar/club which has a wide variety of entertainment on during the week. It stays open til 6am on certain nights, if you're inclined to want to stay out that late! Admittedly it can be a bit dodgy at times, and one of the bouncers is a bit of a dickhead xD I like it quite a lot though. It seems to appeal more to lesbians and bisexuals than the Wynford does.
http://www.malthousepub.com/

There is an LGBT society in the university which runs a monthly night in the union, called Spectrum. I've found it to be pretty dull early in the night but it does tend to liven up later as the night goes on. They also run advice sessions every now and again (not sure how frequently), and other events such as talks from politicians and LGBT activists. The society also held a "Homophobia is gay" bar crawl along with the Lib Dem soc recently, which got a few people along and was part of the Lib Dem's "homophobia is gay" week. (I live with the president of the LD soc so I heard a lot about it.) :P

Overall Reading has a pretty decent gay scene, of course not as big or good as the ones in London or Brighton but the venues and people are nice enough. There is also a gay pride parade every year in September, which I haven't been to yet but my friends seemed to have had a good time there.

I hope I have been some help. :smile:

Reply 2

Sir Joe

I've had the pleasure of working 3 times at the granby, as i work for the security firm that does it's doors :rolleyes:

As the above poster said, saturday is the busier night, opens about 10-3am, fiver entry after 11. 1130-1230 is when it starts filling up. I'd describe it as more of a club on that night as the music is really banging dance/pop mixes, smoke machine is blaring out, and most of the downstairs room is a dancefloor. It has very modern decor, rather then looking like the inside of an old pub. There is an upstairs area that sometimes open with more seating for chill out.

Management and bar staff are mainly lesbians and the people that go there tend to be split between lesbians, gay men and alot of students. The atmosphere is generally quite positive but people do get very drunk and everytime i work there i get a gay man hitting on me at least once (I'm straight) lol. hope this helps.

Reply 3

stickydisgust

It's gay.

Reply 4

rjcuk

I would like to update on the bars in Reading as it's changed a little bit, apologies for waking up old threads, this has a high result in Google so it should be kept up-to-date!

The Granby is still around however it is now called The 'G'
https://www.facebook.com/TheGReading
The Granby is quite mixed and the most popular nights are Saturdays, sometimes the LGBT Group at Reading University visits.

Also The G is the current location of Thursgays, which has moved between a few bars including Vodka Revolutions and East West. They do events once a month with special deals and themes.
http://www.thursgaysuk.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Thursgays
https://twitter.com/#!/Thursgay

There is also the Wynford Arms which is still around and nearly in the center of town. Again as Sing-in-silence above said, they do all different nights and karaoke as well.
http://www.wynfordarms.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wynfordarms

The Malthouse has closed down however there is a new bar that opened called The Rising Sun which is the other side of the station to where the Malthouse was.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rising-Sun-Reading/137066796394650

The LGBT Group is no longer running Spectrum, instead the new LGBT for 2011/2012 and onwards has a brand new union social night called Antidote. They also do trips to Brighton, London and Manchester as well as the committee visting local schools and colleges. They also run a coffee hour every Monday 1-2pm at the union.
http://www.lgbtreading.co.uk/

Reading of course also has Reading Pride which is in September every year involving a march down Broad Street and then an amusement/live stage in King's Meadow (next to the big Tesco).
http://www.readingpride.co.uk/

I hope this helps.

Reply 5

gms_

There are officially no gay bars left in Reading now unfortunately. The only bar which is unofficial but the gays tend to go is the blargrove by the station, apart from that, there is a HUGE hole in the market