Three iconic gay bars on Oxford Street are being nominated for heritage status to honour their significant role in Sydney’s queer history.
Universal nightclub (formerly Midnight Shift) at 85-91 Oxford Street, Palms at 124 Oxford Street, and the Oxford Hotel at 134 Oxford Street were selected following a study led by the City of Sydney Council that searched for local venues important to the LGBTQ+ community.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore AO said the venues are an integral part of both the physical and social landscape of the area, with each holding close ties to the community since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“We know how important it is to our LGBTIQA+ communities to protect, preserve and recognise the rich cultural history along Oxford Street,” she said.
Historian Garry Wotherspoon, a board member of Qtopia, Sydney’s queer history museum, agrees.
“Oxford Street is such an important part of our city’s queer history and culture, and its venues — many of them long gone — were important places where our communities could develop their sense of identity in safety,” Wotherspoon said.
Wotherspoon marched in the first Mardi Gras, in 1978, and has been involved in the area for the past five decades.
From the early 1970s to the present day, Oxford Street has been a sanctuary for LGBTQI+ people to be themselves, as well as becoming a hub for HIV/AIDS education during that era.
Palms
Palms was originally built in 1855 and was occupied by various businesses including the Catholic Women’s Association between 1914 and 1916.
It opened in 1977 as a gay club, operating as a cabaret venue. It traded as Scooters Bar and Diner during the 1980s before reopening in 2000 as Palms.
Universal
The two-storey commercial building was designed in the Inter War Free Classical style, popular in the 1920s.
In 1978, it opened as ‘Tropicana’, a restaurant and gay disco, and in 1980 morphed into Club 85 before being damaged in a fire only months later. It reopened in November 1980 as the Midnight Shift, running until late 2017, when the lockout laws affected attendance.
In 2018, the club was rebranded as Universal.
Oxford Hotel
Built in the 1850s using the Federation Free style as well as Classical details, it was first known as a pub called ‘The Cottage of Content’.
Prior to settling as the Oxford Hotel in 1905, it traded as the Johnston’s Family, Ryan’s and Midland Hotel.
The 1970s saw the hotel becoming associated with the rock scene, before officially becoming a gay hotel in 1982, making it one of Sydney’s oldest continually operating queer venues.
Richie Haines, COO of Universal Hotels, which own both Universal and the Oxford, said the company proudly recognise the importance and connection the hotels hold for the LGTBQIA+ community.
“The listings – should they proceed – will inevitably add a layer of complexity to future development. Despite this, we are grateful to the City of Sydney for continuing to work with us to ensure that the proposed heritage inventory sheets are not overly burdensome in terms of the built form and physical fabric,” Haines told PubTIC.
“The listings are proposed essentially to recognise the hotels’ cultural significance, and any recommended management should accordingly be narrow in scope.
“We are hopeful of achieving an outcome which serves to recognise and celebrate the hotels’ significance, without unnecessarily burdening or prejudicing future development,” he concluded.
The heritage listing proposal is currently with the NSW government for review.
City of Sydney councillors will now be looking at additional venues for possible heritage status.
