In the early '80s, a new wine bar opened in Swansea. The building it occupied was far from the usual drinking spots near The Kingsway but a local businesswoman named Julie Williamson decided to take the plunge, buy the tenancy and open her own pub. This was the unlikely birth of one of Swansea's most loved bars - Champers - that became the home of the city's gay scene.
"It certainly wasn't gay. It was just an ordinary pub. I never actually said it was a gay bar during the '80s at all. What it was - everybody was welcome as long as they respected everybody else," said Julie, who now owns First Call Coffee just a few doors down from where Champers once stood on the High Street.
"Straight people accepted that there were gay people there. Vice versa. They all got on very, very well. But of course, the eighties was really quite heavy going for people who were gay." You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Read more: The LGBT+ choir that's giving people in Swansea a community and a home
As Champers was just down the road from now derelict gay club, The Palace, Julie encouraged partygoers to come to her pub after their nights out there. She said she found the crowd who made their way over from The Palace to be a lot more respectful and less aggressive than some of her other patrons.
But Julie received some backlash when she opened her pub to LGBTQ+ people - some who she thought were friends were not impressed by her inclusive attitude.
"A fair number of people who I knew made it quite clear that they wouldn't be coming into the pub, purely because of the other people who were there. But then that was their choice. I've never been one for trying to be popular or indeed worrying about the business sense of things. If people didn't want to come in then it was far better they didn't."
Those who were less closed-minded carried on drinking at Champers and a crowd of regulars, of all ages and sexualities, became one huge family. "It was very much a community space," said Julie, "there were never quiet nights." Her small pub on the high street became a safe space during a decade which saw homophobic legislation from Thatcher's government and the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis.
"In the 80s, I think the majority of the people who came in, wanted to come into a safe environment," explained Julie. "They knew if anyone was aggressive they would be dealt with, in a nice way. We didn't have bouncers in those days. Women can handle situations like that far better sometimes."
Section 28 was introduced by Thatcher's government in 1988 and outlawed the promotion of homosexuality in schools and by councils. The law was in effect in Wales until 2003, while Champers was open throughout the 80s, 90s and 00s offering somewhere people knew they would be accepted and welcomed.
The long bar in the middle of Champers was where the crowd would gather and have a catch-up each evening over a drink. Whenever someone new arrived, bar staff would always introduce them to the group. "A lot of people were quite shy, maybe it was a very big step for them to come up to the bar and buy a drink," Julie said.
Speaking about the AIDS crisis, Julie said "Obviously, we lost people we knew from our community. People tended, in those days, to rally round very much more for each other. Which was one really good thing. The people at Champers looked out for each other and were helpful and they cared. But they shouldn't actually have had to have done because life shouldn't be like that. People should all be treated with the same consideration no matter what their gender, sexuality, race or anything is."
In 1984, there were 108 AIDS cases and 46 deaths in the UK and in 1985 the Terrence Higgins Trust held its first candlelit vigil in Trafalgar Square. That year, Westminster Council challenged Greater London Council's decision to award £17,000 to the charity to grant staff paid salaries.
Champers staff and regulars would put on charity nights for charities like Terrence Higgins Trust among many others. One night was held in honour of one of Champers' resident DJs, Stuart Macey, who sadly died after suffering from diabetes when he was just 32. Stuart had lost his sight gradually due to his ill health and in his honour the Champers crowd and Stuart's family raised enough money for two guide dogs called DJ and Stuart.
Stuart, Julie and another DJ at Champers wanted to expand the club and had plans for a dance floor but Stuart's death took the shine out of the exciting ambitions. Julie gave the next owners of Champers the plans they had drawn up and this later became Club2Ten.
Family was at the very heart of Champers and Julie said Christmas was one of their best nights of the year. During the '80s, a lot of Julie's regulars did not have families of their own or had got married and had children and then temporarily lost their children when they had come out. The Champers crowd became a chosen family, of which Julie seems to have been the matriach, although she remains humble.
"It's nothing to do with me! The place developed a character of its own and the people who came there helped everybody else," she said.
In later years, her son was often looked after by her friends at Champers who loved him dearly. "Although in those days, [her regulars] were in the pub in the evenings, a lot of them missed the idea of having children and a family life." Julie said things needed to change for the better and she was happy that things were different now.
It was not until the Adoption and Children Act of 2002, that same-sex parents were allowed to become full and equal legal parents for the first time in UK law. Then, in 2004, The Civil Partnership Act enabled same-sex couples to register as partners with all the same legal rights and responsibilities of marriage. Same sex marriage did not become law until 2013.
As the bar did not advertise itself as a gay bar and had a mix of LGBTQ+ and straight customers, Julie said it was somewhere people could bring their families or work friends even if they were not "out" to them.
Julie said she was still in touch with the crowd from Champers and would always regret selling it in 2001. Despite spending less time there during the 90s, she said it was such a nice and easy place to run.
Fast-forward a few decades from when Julie first turned the keys and opened up the doors of the little-known wine bar Champers, bar supervisor Kieran Sowdon is in the same building searching for Valentine's Day decorations in an old stock room nicknamed 'The Graveyard'. It is 2015 and Champers is now owned by a gay venue chain called OMG! which was taken over from another chain called Pulse and Kieran is digging through the relics of Champers' past for an event they are putting on.
Kieran, who is now aged 26, was the supervisor of OMG! in 2017 when it shut its doors for the final time. He said the "old crowd" would still come in then and it had not lost its sense of family - albeit a rather dysfunctional one.
"We always had a bit of an eclectic mix of people in there. You had 18-year-olds who were just coming out for the first time. And you also had all of the older generation who could remember Champers, who were constantly telling us how much better it was. It was quite interesting because even though the venue had been been long gone by that time, it still had that reputation," said Kieran.
Most people over the age of 26 still called it Champers, Kieran said, and many of the old regulars still drank there. Kieran, who is originally from Maesteg, was more familiar with the LGBTQ+ scene in Cardiff before he started working at what used to be Champers. The main difference in the Swansea scene was that it was smaller and there was less choice so different ages mixed in the same gay bar.
By the time Kieran arrived on the scene, LGBTQ+ nightlife in Swansea was dwindling and Wind Street was the centre of nights out in Swansea. "It was a lot quieter than I thought it would be. The reasons for that are many and numerous but it was 2015. LGBT people were starting to be more accepted in wider society and Wind Street was safe. That was one of the reasons that the scene ended up the way it is, it's almost like a double edged sword."
It eventually became clear that the bar would be closed down and in 2017 OMG! held its closing night. Kieran said that was the busiest night they put on and old owners, managers and regulars of Champers came down to party for one last time. After a packed evening of dancing and reminiscing, the bar staff had the melancholy job of closing down for the final time while they drank a farewell beer.
"We we were all just sat there, taking it in turns to help remove the stock from the stock room. It was just incredibly upsetting. I think a few of us ended up in tears at that point. It was the end. As much as we all complained about the place, it held such an important place in the community. A lot of that went way before we did. We got to understand that as well, because of the close-knit nature of the LGBT community here.
"Because it's so small. That was one of its benefits. We spoke to some of the older people, which in some of the biggest cities, you don't have that privilege, especially after the AIDS crisis. There aren't as many of them kicking about."
Champers has lived on through numerous reunions over the years, and Julie said that during one reunion a man who she did not even know had come up from London especially and told her he would not have made it through his university years without the support of the Champers family. Most recently, a queer dance night called PYNK in Elysium, which has taken over the old Champers building, put on a reunion with drag performances and DJs.
Champers' legacy still lives on in Swansea but the gay nightlife scene has sadly dwindled, making inclusive LGBTQ+ nights like PYNK, which raise money for charities like Mermaids and LGBT Cymru, so important.
Read next:
- The determined Italian man who's become one of Wales' biggest forces for change in improving LGBT+ lives
- Charlotte Church says she's a 'huge supporter' of trans rights
- What became of Swansea's famous nightclubs?
- The legendary nightclubs of Mumbles where you could wrap up a night on the famous mile
- The story of Cinderella's nightclub in Mumbles where generations drank Blue Bols and snogged
Find out about things going on where you live:
