First bar opens in the UK dedicated to showing women's sports

Martin Macdonald

• 16 Feb 2026 05:30 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

A new bar has opened in Brighton dedicated to primarily showing women's sports.

A couple of weeks ago, Crossbar Bar opened its doors for the first time, with tables being snapped up within four minutes of availability.

The USP of the bar is that it will show both men's and women's sports, but the latter will be given priority on the televisions, which will come as a welcome change for those who wish to watch competitions such as the Women's Super League.

Founders Lucy and Pippa Tallant said: "With many women's events hidden behind paywalls and limited places to watch them publicly, that community can only grow so far.

A bar dedicated to showing women's sports has opened, claiming to be the first of its kind in the UK 🙌 pic.twitter.com/eSp6mahU2v

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 15, 2026

"Crossbar is about removing those barriers, creating a place where you know your team will be on, where you can celebrate or commiserate together in a space designed around women and non-binary fans, while still welcoming everyone."

There was evidently a desire for such a place in Brighton and the pair were keen to create a space that they themselves would enjoy.

They continued: "We wanted a space that was everything we look for in a bar – women's sport, good wine and a great place to hang out.

"Those things exist separately in Brighton, but we couldn't find one place that brought them all together.

"If we couldn't find it, we thought other people might not be able to either. So, we decided to create it."

The upstairs room, known as the Clubhouse, is set to be used as a venue for meetings related to women's sport in the area.

The bar was Lucy's idea originally, and the point came when the pair felt they had to go ahead with their dream before someone else beat them to the punch.

“I’d been toying around with this idea for a long time within our friend group, over a few bottles of wine, and we’d all have a little moan about why there isn’t a female-centric space, but also somewhere that supported women’s sports,” Lucy explained to the Guardian.

“That theme sort of grew and grew until Pip got fed up hearing about it.”

Lucy likes to watch women's sports in the bar and laments that, before Crossbar was opened, it became a chore trying to find specific fixtures or even convincing places to show women's sports.

“You often have to run around to multiple venues to see if someone’s showing it. Either it’s just ‘no’ or you get a yes but then you get there and it’s either on on the smallest screen in the corner with no sound or they’ve changed the channel because someone wanted something else,” she says.

“That’s a recurring story and it’s problematic for the growth of women’s sports across the board.”

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