The Radnor Hotel: Bristol’s gay safe haven of the 20th century

At a time when homosexuality was still outlawed, a dimly lit, smoky pub on St Nicholas Street was a haven for LGBTQ+ people in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

The Radnor Hotel welcomed everyone from drag artist Danny La Rue and actor Anton Walbrook to airmen from Filton and teens from Weston-super-Mare.

The eclectic pub opened in around 1925 and ran until the 1970s, and was definitely an LGBTQ+ space from the 1940s onwards.

The pub, with a jukebox that often played the Kinks and a snug bar at the back, was initially run by the Broadhurst family.

Charles Broadhurst held the licence until 1938, when Grace Broadhurst took over. Grace’s daughter, Joan, then held the licence after Grace’s death in 1953. She married Gerald Weegenaar, who kept it until his early death in 1963.

The pub passed through numerous hands until its eventual closure at the end of the 20th century, but for many years the pub was de facto ruled by Peggy Hancock, known as Auntie Peg, helped by three barmen known as Bubbles, Edwina and Victoria Melita.

Peggy Hancock was a Rednor Hotel favourite. Image: Bristol Museum & Art Gallery/Malcolm Ashman, RWA, RBA

Straight men, mainly farmers and traders from nearby St Nicholas Market, would drink at the pub in the daytime. But, after dark, the Radnor Hotel was frequented by gay people and those performing at the Bristol Old Vic and Hippodrome.

During World War Two, the pub was often visited by gay men in the RAF and soldiers from the USA stationed in Clifton.

It is possible that these soldiers first introduced the American term “gay” into the parlance of the Radnor Hotel, replacing the more common “queer” which was in use in the 1940s.

“I was an 18-year-old Airman in the RAF at Filton along with about 200 other males of the same age,” one individual remembers to hotel on the OutStories website.

“National Service was compulsory at the time. Three or four of us used to go down to Bristol to jazz clubs but there was one lad originally from Cardiff who one night said ‘come on. I’ll show you the queers’ pub’.”

Through the war and into the 1950s, a table was always reserved for a group called the Tea Set, who also visited the Moulin Rouge club after it opened in around 1970.

“I remember the Tea Set table but did not get to know some of the occupants until sometime later,” says another individual on the OutStories website. “Wally C, a member of that set, and subsequently a close friend, tells a wonderful story of his first visit to the Radnor.”

The Radnor Hotel in the 1960s with landlady Joan Weegenaar outside. Photo: Anna Henderson.

They add: “He had plucked up enough courage to enter those hallowed portals and as he did so, caught his toe in the sunken doormat well and stumbled and half ran to the bar, grabbing it to prevent himself falling fully to the floor.

“As he grappled his way up the bar, from the floor, Peggy looked at him and said, ‘what you having, dear?’ Talk about making an entrance.”

By the time homosexuality was partly decriminalised in 1967, the pub was already known as a safe space for gay  people in Bristol and beyond.

At the back of the pub was a curtain, which divided the street-facing part of the venue and the snug at the far end. To get to the toilet, visitors had to go through the curtain and “accept the squeals from the camp voices”.

David and Tricia Brokenbrow took over the pub in 1969, with David preferring the daytime crowd, which were mostly stockbrokers at this time. Courage was on tap, an original with a red label, and Best Bitter, with a blue label.

“In the mid 70s when we had to put chicken wire over the windows as it suddenly became very fashionable for every cidered-up yokel in town to throw bricks through the windows,” says Jon, the son of David and Tricia.

“I can remember thinking how odd that was as the evening vibe was always so laid back, it never struck me until then that anyone could have anything against the gay community.”

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Read more: Five facts from Bristol’s hidden LGBT+ past

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From 1973, the Radnor Hotel had a close neighbour in the Elephant, now the Boardroom. It is difficult to determine exactly when the pub closed.

The Radnor Hotel seemed to became the Porcupine in the mid-70s, run until 1984 by Tricia Brokenbrow, who was a housewife prior to taking over the pub. David and Tricia’s son also remembers the Porcupine as a queer space.

“It was just such a strange situation with this nuclear 1960s family from Frenchay/Downend, my dad was formerly an accountant with the TGWU and my mum a housewife, taking over the more downbeat of the two gay pubs in St Nicholas Street,” says Jon.

“So many tales to tell and so many lessons learned growing up amongst such a diverse crowd.”

The pub was closed for many years following the mid-80s.

Mr Wolf’s moved into the space in 2015 and the Radnor Rooms, a wedding and function venue, moving next door to the gig space in 2019.

Mr Wolf’s moved into the space in June 2015. Photo: Jake Davis

The pub’s former neighbour, the Elephant, closed in 2006. It reopened briefly as The Ivory with an upstairs restaurant, became the Market Place and then reverted to the Elephant (but it is now a straight pub).

There was a queer club called Flamingo Joe’s on the road for a brief period in the 1990s, but the queer spaces of St Nicholas Street are no more. In 2021, the city’s LGBTQ+ pubs live on in the Queenshilling and the city’s other main queer venue, OMG.

Main photo: Anna Henderson/University of Bristol

Read more: ‘Queer venues are a safe haven for those who face societal rejection’