Sappho Books, Cafe & Bar

Sappho Books, Cafe & Bar is a small live-music room in Sydney’s Glebe, with its capacity publicly unlisted. Its distinguishing feature is the route into the performance space: a second-hand bookshop leads through a muralled passageway to a bar and courtyard whose graffiti dates from the building’s earlier life as the Glebe Youth Centre. Expect a close-range, seated-bar feel geared toward singer-songwriters and semi-acoustic sets.

A bookshop finds its back room

Meredith Baillie opened Sappho Books on Glebe Point Road in 1996. Her intended long-term home sat nearby: a large old terrace that had housed the Glebe Youth Centre and later stood boarded up, vandalised and covered in graffiti. In 2004, Baillie secured the building and converted it into Sappho’s present bookshop, cafe and bar, spreading the operation across six rooms, two levels and a rear courtyard.

That conversion kept the old courtyard markings in view, making the youth-centre graffiti part of the setting for evening events. The venue’s after-dark room is reached via a fairy-lit, muralled passage beside Gleebooks; Broadsheet described its regular music as semi-acoustic and a platform for emerging performers. The bookshop also carries Da Capo Music, a specialist second-hand sheet-music store, tying the daytime browse directly to the musical identity of the bar.

The room today

Sappho’s calendar leans toward folk, indie, pop, country and stripped-back songwriter performances, alongside poetry and an open stage. Artists can submit a music sample or link by email for consideration; the venue also presents Poetry Night on the first Wednesday of each month and Open Stage on the second Wednesday. The bar opens Wednesday through Saturday, with live music most nights. Arrive for the courtyard: it is the focal point, framed by books, preserved graffiti, tapas, wine, craft beer and cocktails.