The Flying Handbag
A big, purpose-built LGBTQ+ bar and club on Queen Street, open from noon every day with drag hosts, karaoke, food and a sun terrace.
Lesbians in Blackpool
Mixed bars, women-friendly stays, the nearest lesbian socials, and the history of Lucy's and Kings.
A lesbian is a woman who is attracted to women. Some non-binary people also identify as lesbian. The word describes orientation: it says nothing about how someone dresses, looks or expresses their gender. Blackpool's scene grew up mainly around gay men's bars and hotels, and at the moment the town has no bar run specifically for women. But women have always been part of the quarter, and there is more for lesbians here than the men-heavy reputation suggests.
Nights out
The big venues on Queen Street and the drag bars draw a mixed crowd, and a drag show is the classic Blackpool night out whoever you are. Women are a big part of the audience at every Funny Girls show.
Funny Girls
Blackpool's best-known drag cabaret, staging big themed revues in a restored 1939 art deco cinema two minutes from Blackpool North.
Garlands
A camp, free-entry drag pub near Blackpool North where resident queens are on from mid-afternoon every single day.
Neon Bar and Hotel Neon
An intimate cocktail bar with a garden, attached to the modern, adults-only Hotel Neon on the corner of Lord Street.
Avoid the men-only places: Trades, the Prince Albert, Welhorny's, the Growlr Club upstairs at Man Bar, and the saunas Acqua and W3. Everything else in the quarter welcomes women.
Where to stay
Most LGBTQ+ guest houses in the quarter are now mixed. Pride Lodge, Q Accommodation, Lawrence House, the Molly House and Hotel Neon all say clearly that they welcome the whole community. For years Gabrielle's on Lord Street was known as Blackpool's women's hotel; today it markets itself as a mainstream small hotel, so ask about its current approach if that matters to you. Our women and lesbian-friendly stays guide has the full list.
Groups and meet-ups
There is no lesbian-only group in Blackpool at the time of writing. The nearest options are:
Sallies (Lancaster)
Lesbian meet-ups seven evenings a year at the White Cross pub in Lancaster, the nearest regular lesbian social to Blackpool.
Lancashire LGBT Women and Non-Binary Group
A free monthly online group from the county LGBTQ+ charity for lesbian, bi, trans and queer women and femme non-binary people.
Blackpool Allies
A free, relaxed social evening twice a month for LGBT+ people and anyone who supports them, at the Horizon centre on Dickson Road.
Electric Pink Voices
Blackpool's LGBTQ+ community choir, which rehearses every Tuesday evening and welcomes new members.
The monthly LGBTQ+ swim at Moor Park, the LGBTQ+ football sessions run by Blackpool FC's community trust and Lancashire LGBT's walking group are also good ways to meet people away from the bars.
Lesbian Blackpool: a short history
Women's spaces are one of the least recorded parts of Blackpool's queer past, but a few stand out.
- Lucy's: one of the town's first two LGBTQ+ bars, older than the Flamingo. By the 2000s it was trading as Lucy's Two at 68 to 70 Abingdon Street, and it catered mainly for women at a time when almost everything else was aimed at men. It was dog-friendly and very local. The building is now the Galleon Bar, which is not an LGBTQ+ venue. Read the history of Lucy's.
- The Flamingo and the Flying Handbag: women who went as young clubbers remember them as places that felt safe, which not every Blackpool club could claim. Researcher Dr Helen Eadon-Sinkinson, whose work became the 2025 documentary Queering Blackpool, is one of them.
- Kings, 2015: a bar on High Street billed as the UK's first venue for drag kings. It was by women, for women, including trans women, and its compère performed as the drag king Rogue. It no longer trades. See drag kings in Blackpool.
- Pride: gay and lesbian bikers rode in the very first Blackpool Pride parade in 2006.
If you have memories or photos of lesbian life in Blackpool, the We're Still Here! heritage project wants to hear from you.
Awareness dates
- Lesbian Visibility Day: 26 April, often part of a Lesbian Visibility Week.
- Blackpool Pride: June. See Blackpool Pride.
More for lesbians
- Blackpool for lesbian, bi and queer women
- Is Blackpool safe? and solo travel
- Domestic abuse support, including Galop's LGBT+ helpline
Sources
Sexual and romantic orientation: more pages
GayThe bars, men-only hotels and saunas, bears, health clinics, peer support and fifty years of history.BisexualWelcoming venues, BiPhoria and other groups, health services and bi history at Blackpool Pride.PansexualWhat pansexual means, how it differs from bi, and welcoming places and groups.AsexualWhat asexual means, the ace spectrum, Pluto MCR, sociable things to do away from the bars, and support.AromanticWhat aromantic means, the aro spectrum, the nearest group, friendship-first socials and awareness week.QueerWhat queer means today, plus queer art, heritage, alternative drag and community in Blackpool.QuestioningGentle first steps, confidential helplines, youth groups and low-pressure places to start.CuriousWhat curious means, welcoming venues, men-only places, safer sex, consent and support.Every identityThe full list, the long acronyms and UK law.