La Camionera: What went down at the opening of London’s new lesbian night

Around four weeks ago, rumblings emerged on social media of “a new lesbian bar on Broadway Market”: La Camionera (Spanish for “female truck driver”, but also, informally, a butch lesbian). Other than this, information was sparse, the marketing obscure and the owner tantalisingly anonymous. Where is it? What is it going to look like? Is it a full-time bar? Is it just a club night? And most importantly, whose ex is running it?

The news captivated the lesbian rumour mill for weeks, reaching its dark and sexy climax last night. The opening served as a temperature check, an investigation into the interest in a London Fields lesbian bar. As it turned out, there was a lot of interest – the temperature was hot.

The evening can be easily divided into two halves: the first comprised the hour between 5pm and 6pm, during which time the early and ever-punctual lesbians of east London filed into the candlelit boudoir. They quickly filled the 20 covers laid out for the evening, and sipped ‘Caña’, ‘Vermut’ and Negronis, nibbling at their girl dinners (skewered olives, cornichons, anchovies and pickled chilis). In that half, we witnessed the birth of a venue that will see more first dates than that French guy off the telly. 

The second part of the evening encompassed the hours between 6pm and 11pm, which saw hundreds more people flock to the venue, filling not only La Camionera and Off Broadway upstairs, but spilling out onto the street. Downstairs became close, hot, sweaty and sexy, with the bar upstairs housing the overspill. The droves of lesbians and their exes then filled the full width of the street, including the pavements, down to Climpsons in one direction and El Ganso in the other. 

In all my time in London, I have never seen lesbians congregate like this. Making my way through the sea of sapphics in the street, the vibes were truly immaculate – which, given that they had come to a bar that most of them couldn’t physically enter, was quite remarkable. The joy of being together as a group was palpable, and, in asking them their thoughts on the evening, one statement came up again and again: “it’s sooooo needed”, “it’s just so needed”, “we need more things like this”, and other such variations on a theme.

To see the lesbian community so united and so numerous filled my little gay heart with joy and hope. Others were just delighted to see that they hadn’t dated every lesbian in London – and I’m sure the unfamiliar faces and untapped friendship groups brought similar joy and hope to the hopeless sapphic serial daters. 

La Camionera is located downstairs at 63 Broadway Market. This morning they announced that they will be opening Sunday to Thursday (but to bear with them for specifics). Official opening times will be shared soon via their Instagram.

For more of Zula Rabikowska’s photography, follow her on Instagram or head over to her website.