The Lisbon sits in the heart of the Pride Quarter and is the longest-running gay bar in Liverpool.
Landlady Eileen Lea has been at The Lisbon since 1999. She tells about what’s changed in that time and reveals some of her favourite stories behind the bar.
In the 25 years you have been at The Lisbon, what are the biggest changes you’ve noticed?
In the 90s, no one really had mobiles and we didn’t really have the internet. If you wanted to know what was going on in the scene, you had to go into the bars. You knew what time of day it was by who came in the door. For the older generation, this was a really safe place because it was so different back then. Now it’s much freer so the younger generation don’t feel the need to be hidden but still use the quarter as a place to express themselves.
Why do you think The Lisbon is such a treasure for the city?
I think it’s because of where it’s situated because we’re on a main road and most of the gay bars over the years have been on side streets, you know like Pacos, The Massy, The Poste and The Curzon. I think as well it appeals to straights as well as gays. When I first came here, I used to see guys who I’d thought were straight, who I’d worked with in the past. They’d come in here and they’d go, “oh, what are you doing here?” And I’d go, “well, I work here…more to the point, what are you doing here?” And they’d go, “erm…I was waiting for the bus and thought I’d come in here for a game of pool.” I think a lot of straight guys, or curious ones, would come in because you could get away with pretending you were straight if you got caught by the wrong person. As I said, it’s not the same now. It’s different.
Do you think The Lisbon will still be around in another 25 years?
I think it will still be here. I don’t think I will be. It’s been going since 1888. That’s Two World Wars, umpteenth recessions, loads of Tory governments, and it’s still here. There’s no record really going back saying whether it was a gay bar in the beginning. You can only go by what people remember. My husband remembers this as a gay bar in the late 50s and early 60s.
You must have some stories after all these years…
So many! One night the pub flooded and we just couldn’t stop it. So we ended up kneeling on a chair like the scene from Titanic while it just carried on. There’s been some good ones over the years.
