Lance Jessop has devoted his entire working life to the Leeds gay scene and The Bridge LGBT Bar.

It was 23 years ago that Lance and his Dad Ray bought The Bridge, the building which had previously been a café and second hand shop, had been renovated into a pub but was never used as a one until the Jessops came to town.

The Bridge did not open as a gay bar and that area of town was not, at that point, a gay area at although its neighbour, The New Penny, was a firmly established gay place. On this Lance said, “We had a lot of gay clientele which was surprising as my dad had run a traditional working man’s club before The Bridge and he was very ‘old school’ it took him a while to get used to the changes, but he did get used to it and loved the banter with the customers.”

Lance, who has two children, aged 11 and 18 said, “I used to get quite a bit of male attention in the early days but now I am old and haggard, I don’t get any!” Lance who is 41 (and swore at me when I asked his age) said that he is a happily single man and plans to stay that way.

After Ray retired 15 years ago due to ill health, Lance took on the sole responsibility of the bar and has never looked back.

“When my Dad retired, I basically gutted the pub. It was very much an old man’s type of bar and I decided to have a massive change and just start again. I did it all by hand and it took a month to get it just right.”

When speaking to Lance, his love of the Leeds scene is obvious, he said; “I am so sad that I have not been able to be as involved in the scene over the past few years as I would have like to have been. I broke my back in an accident three years ago and was in a hell of a state after that and then not too long after, my dad died and I have had a lot of personal issues to handle but I am back now and have so many new ideas for The Bridge.”

Asking what these ideas were, Lance replied, “I would love to work closely with all of the other bars. Yes, we are all business competitors in a way, but we are also a community and the best way to keep that community going is to talk to each other. Ideally, it would be great to have a monthly meeting with all of the other bar owners and managers and try to co-ordinate event weekends in which all of the bars undertake the same theme. Recently Terry George helped me out with a problem I was having and I would be equally happy to do the same for other bars. We are a great community and have huge potential.”

On his ambitions for The Bridge Lance said, “Obviously I want it to be the number one pub on the scene, the place that people talk about and want to go to. The Viaduct became our (and probably everyone’s) main competition when Clare (McGrogan) took over as manager; she did a tremendous job and is an incredible manager and she was the person that everyone on the scene talked about. We do have a regular and loyal client base at The Bridge but there is a new generation of people coming out on the scene now and we need to attract them too.”

The Bridge has already started fundraising for Leeds Pride 2011; they had a ‘Heaven and Hell’ weekend recently and will be having a Reflex weekend soon which is a celebration of all things from the 1980’s. Their ‘Sing for Pride’ competition is due to start in March. “Sing for Pride, formerly The Bridge Factor, is a singing competition that will have four heats and the winner will be given a place on the main stage at Leeds Pride. On the subject of Pride, Lance said;

“I know that the way it is to be organised this year is changing and I hope that it will work for the better. In the past there have been too many chiefs and not enough Indians and has gotten a bit chaotic at times so hopefully this year will be better and everyone will know what they are doing. I would love Leeds Pride to be more like Manchester Pride and it be a whole weekend event, more like a carnival. Personally I love Pride, it is important and I can’t wait to play a big part in it this year and am really looking forward to being in Millennium Square and just enjoying the atmosphere with friends.”

Lance is the first to acknowledge how much the scene has changed over the years and as the current longest serving worker on the scene no one will have seen more changes than him. “Even the role of the door staff has had to change” continued Lance, “They are there as a deterrent to trouble obviously but are more meeters and greeters these days.

As Lance is now (mainly) recovered from his horrific accident in which he broke his back, expect to see him around a lot more, whether in the DJ box, running theme nights or mingling in the other bars and doing his upmost to keep our community as thriving and amazing as possible.

Lance’s service to the community has been amazing and as he plans never to retire we have many, many years to look forward to the energy and innovation that he brings to the seen.

Behind the tough exterior Lance is an extremely kind and giving man who throws himself wholeheartedly into everything he does and cares deeply about the Leeds scene.

Leeds is a better place for this dedicated and devoted man who is greatly respected by many.

Gayleeds.com would like to thank Lance for giving this interview and also for being such a strong advocate for LGBT people in our city.

Sarah Carmody

editor@gayleeds.com