The owners of Baby Love Bar have revealed that it will move to the Castle Tavern in Oxford, described by Oxford Daily Info as “one of the friendliest hubs of Oxford’s gay pubbing scene.
The new club will retain the basement dancefloor, pole and late opening hours that have been its most distinctive features. The owners are considering whether to keep its distinctive, unisex toilets in the new incarnation.
Baby Love will have its final, closing party next week after Oriel College announced that it would be taking back the site of the club.
When its closure was first announced, the college said in a statement, “Oriel College has a long term strategy for the gradual redevelopment and improvement of King Edward Street.
“As a result the College will be taking back the premises occupied by the Baby Love Bar shortly. We understand that the Baby Love Bar intends to relocate to new premises as soon as it can and wish it well for the future.”
The owners of Baby Love are optimistic about their new plans. Owner Martin Forde told Cherwell, “The size is practically the same once our redecoration will be completed. It is the same layout, with an upstairs and a basement dance floor. The hours of opening will be till 2am (3am for our more popular student nights like Poptarts and Supermarket).
“We have not decided about unisex toilets, but at present they are separate. What do you think, do students want or do NOT want unisex toilets?
“We WILL retain a pole… that’s a MUST! The idea is to re-create Baby Love eventually, in its look and service. The one advantage is we will be having draught beer etc. together with cocktails, and I can assure there will be deals for students on those! There is an upstairs and downstairs just like Baby Love, with the advantage of it NOT being near any Colleges, as Oriel objected to the late night noise.”
An English student at Magdalen said, “One third of the reason Baby Love is my spiritual home in Oxford is its grimy, sweaty basement feeling, which the new building doesn’t really look equipped to provide. Second and third is the crowd and music, which hopefully they should be able to bring with them. Finally, Baby Love is or used to be the closest place to Magdalen — now it will take ages to walk to and from.”
An Exeter second year was similarly concerned, “Cellar has proven to be a great venue for Supermarket-esque events. This new Baby Love will need to fight for its place in the social calendar.”
