This no-ills dive bar is one of the most beloved clubs on the ma gay drag of Oxford Street. People tend to head here for daggy, tipple-heavy nights that – m
Contents:
- GAY LEGENDS OF SYDNEY FEATURED ON OXFORD STREET AHEAD OF SYDNEY WORLDPRI 2023
- THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE ALBURY, ONE OF SYDNEY’S MOST LEGENDARY GAY BARS
- OXFORD – A GAY OVERTURE
GAY LEGENDS OF SYDNEY FEATURED ON OXFORD STREET AHEAD OF SYDNEY WORLDPRI 2023
Gay activists, drag queens and plenty of u feature on artwork to go up on nstctn s along the famed nightclub strip. * oxford street gay *
In more recent years, those reputatns have begun to fa and the endurg meangs of the “gaybourhood” have e to qutn. But what each of the plac reprents is the centraly of urban space to the emergence of visible, “out and proud” lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer inti and muni. AAP/Atralian Lbian and Gay archiv.
In the years after the send world war, many gay men Sydney socialised CBD hotels, cludg the Hotel Atralia. By the begng of the 1980s, Oxford Street was home to a strg of bars, clubs, snas and f and had bee known as Sydney’s gay “Goln Mile”. The emergence of this gay heartland reprents extraordary social change.
Male homosexualy remaed illegal New South Wal until 1984. The homosexual men socialisg 1950s CBD hotels were required to do so wh discretn – the nsequenc of disvery uld be vastatg. As more venu were opened along the Goln Mile, the street self beme a gay space, as did the surroundg neighbourhoods where LGBTQ people – particularly gay men – ma hom the terrac and apartments of Darlghurst and Paddgton.
THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE ALBURY, ONE OF SYDNEY’S MOST LEGENDARY GAY BARS
It was the most fabulo place I’d ever been my life … It’s full of gay people and they’re all drsed to the n. The gay muny was certaly not ee om sexism, racism and transphobia, meang that some wh the LGBTQ muny were granted far easier accs to the spac than others.
Ined, although Goln Mile-era Oxford Street clud venu popular wh lbians, cludg the women-only bar Ruby Reds, the surroundg neighbourhood was more intifiably gay than lbian. Into the new lennium, Oxford Street’s place as the gay heart of Sydney beme ls certa.
OXFORD – A GAY OVERTURE
In 1983 gay publin Barry Cecchi took over the Milton Hotel on Newtown’s Kg Street, renamed Cecchi’s and lnched as the area’s first gay venue.
Shortly after, the Newtown Hotel, jt across the road, also beme a gay pub. Cecchi told the Sydney Morng Herald 1984 that gays were leavg “the scene” of Oxford Street lookg for a “more smopolan mix” Newtown. Keep Newtown Weird and Safe is an annual muny ftival that began 2016 rponse to homophobic and transphobic vlence.
Illtratns of Sydney's gay legends and key lotns will brighten up Oxford Street after cricism about the state of the strip ahead of pots:The artwork will be plastered on hoardgs verg nstctn s along the famed gay nightclub stripAmong those featured are Doris Fish, a Sydney drag queen, the Unirn Hotel and Black Ada's dance school, a ont for a gay dance club the 1920sThe project is part of the Cy of Sydney's attempts to betify the street ahead of WorldPri 2023Petersham queer artist Amy Blue has created what she scrib as a "sort of Gay-B-C" of Oxford Street.