Singapore gay venues: historical

Introduction

Before the relative liberalisation of Singaporean society, local gay culture consisted solely of venues, largely unknown to the mainstream public. Prior to the 1980s, there were no publicly "out" homosexuals, no Singapore gay organisations, no Singapore gay literature, no Singapore gay art, no Singapore gay films or anything remotely "gay" apart from surreptitious nocturnal congregation spots. Thus, the following list forms an integral part of the documentation of Singapore gay history.

Bars

* Le Bistro- Singapore's first gay bar which opened in the 1960s, as far as many gay Singaporeans can recollect. It was located at the basement of a landmark building called Tropicana along Scotts Road. The latter was a 4-storey entertainment complex renowned for its topless dancing girl revues and occupied the exact spot where Pacific Plaza now stands. Le Bistro was a well-known chill-out bar, especially amongst English-educated gays, and a reputed pick-up haunt for white tourists and local, deeply-closeted homosexuals. Gay gatherings began on Sundays, a tradition which grew out of earlier attempts by Singapore food and beverage outlets to copy an American practice current during that era of Sunday afternoon tea dances. During that time slot, bars and discos were officially closed but Le Bistro's owner would admit his "friends" for a private party. As numbers grew and confidence increased, the afternoon tea parties eventually took over the Sunday nights. One retired New Zealand serviceman, in a chance encounter with Alex Au, claimed that in the early 1960s when he was stationed in Singapore, there was a Golden Venus bar in the Orchard Hotel along Orchard Road. This claim has not been corroborated by Singaporeans. The old Orchard Hotel has since been reconstructed beyond recognition. Le Bistro and Golden Venus no longer exist.

* Pebbles Bar- located on the ground floor forum of the now-demolished Hotel Singapura Continental along Orchard Road, it was the most famous gay bar operational in the 1970s. It was patronised largely by the English-educated, upper-strata gays of Singaporean society and spawned many a local-Caucasian pairing. Its main draw was the live band Tania, whose lead singer, Alban de Souza, was decked out in glitz, painted his face à la KISS but with red makeup instead of black-and-white, and entertained with energetic camp. Although it was the only one of Singapore's first 3 gay bars to have a dance floor, no homosexual dancing was allowed. So gay people sat in one half of the bar drinking and listening to the music, while watching the straight couples dance in the other half. However, it was a common sight to behold men pecking each other on the cheek or lips, incidents which raised nary an eyebrow.

* Treetops Bar- located at the now-demolished Royal Holiday Inn along Scotts Road. Gays also adjourned to Café Vienna after a night of hectic discoing in the 1970s. However, after several years, the proprietor of Treetops Bar felt that having a sizeable gay clientèle was bad for its image and discouraged their patronage.

* Babylon- Singapore's first exclusively gay karaoke pub at 52 Tanjong Pagar Road, set up during the height of the karaoke craze in the 1980s; a narrow, miniature version of its legendary namesake in Bangkok and the original Sumerian city.

* Vincent's lounge [1]

Opened on 18 May 1989 at #06-05 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road, former tel: 7361360, it was the first East-meets-West pub where Asian potato queens, a large proportion of whom were Malay, could meet up with their Caucasian aficionados, otherwise known as rice queens. It offered karaoke as well as booze. It relocated many years later, shortly after its 14th anniversary in May 2003, to a street-level shophouse at 15 Duxton Road in Tanjong Pagar, renaming itself Vincenz.

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It contained a handsomely elegant wooden bar which offered a large selection of beers on tap. The establishment was called "Venerable Vincent's" and "The Grand Dame of Singapore" for good reason. The newer outlet closed down on 26 March 2005 after 16 years of promoting East-West relations.

* For lesser-known venues which only operated for a short time before closing down, see: [2]


Discos

Originally catering to a gay customer base only once a week, usually on Sundays, newer small establishments have managed to survive on the burgeoning pink market by going full-time, on every night of the week.

* The Hangar- Singapore's first gay pub-cum-disco located in a hard-to-find alley along Upper East Coast Road near Bedok was operational in the early 1980s. One had to trudge along a length of unpaved road up a mild slope to gain access to the bar, which was housed in a whitewashed, single-storey, elongated, dormitory-like house. Looking back, some patrons presently in their fifties could not imagine how they could have grooved to the now seemingly uncool hits of that era like 'Beautiful Sunday' by Dawn.

* Marmota/Shadows/Legend- located on the second level of Kallang Leisuredrome above the bowling alley and operating in the early to mid-1980s, it was one of the first to hold regular Sunday gay nights. One would find the dance floor packed with the then-unusual sight of men dancing with each other. However, this happened only during the fast numbers. When the slow songs came on, the dance floor cleared faster than as if a tsunami threatened and only the daring ones irresistibly smitten with their partners were left in tight embrace to be ogled at by those on the sidelines. It was the first disco to organise unofficial masculine Mr. Gay Singapore contests long before Manhunt began. Ironically, the first winner of the contest was a straight boy named Oliver. The disco underwent several renovations and name changes over the years.

* Niche (at Far East Plaza)- opened in April 1983 to cash in on the popularity of Marmota. More popular with the English-educated crowd. It spawned a popular latter-day namesake at Pagoda Street in Chinatown. This second incarnation had its liquor license withdrawn in 1989 and was given only a week to close down. No reason was provided for the police action but a person, personally involved in the running of the disco, believed it was a reaction to the first reported case of an AIDS death in Singapore.

* Studebaker's/Venom- situated at the top floor of the present Pacific Plaza along Scotts Road was the largest disco that homosexuals had ever experienced in Singapore. It remade its image several times over since the early 1990s to remain fresh and introduced webcams where people could see who was dancing in real time by logging onto the Internet. Needless to say, this raised a howl of protest.

* Music World- 2-level disco in Katong Shopping Centre along East Coast Road, operational in the early 1990s.

* Centro- one of Singapore's largest discos at One Fullerton (opposite Fullerton Hotel), Collyer Quay with Sunday gay nights. It opened in 2003 but closed in 2005 to be succeeded by Onyx at the same location but under a new management.


Saunas

Before the 1990s, local homosexuals had to journey all the way to Bangkok, Thailand to experience the pleasures that gay saunas offered. It became more convenient in the early 90s when an establishment called Ryu, meaning 'dragon' in Japanese, opened in Taman Pelangi near the Pelangi Complex in Johor Baru, Johor, Malaysia. Hot on the heels of its overwhelming success in attracting huge crowds of both Singaporeans and Malaysians, another gay sauna called New Blue Boys opened at 104 A-B, Jalan Serampang, Taman Pelangi, 80400, Johor Baru about a year later. Some Singaporean gays would charter taxis in groups to traverse the causeway and experience what was sorely lacking at home.

* Spartacus

The first gay sauna in Singapore opened in 1997 by pioneering entrepreneur Max Lim. It was 3 storeys of hedonism, with a daily gay disco on the ground floor fringed by an overhead observation deck, and showers, a gym and sauna above that. It was strict about sex at first, displaying signs which read, "No obscene acts allowed", but the rule was gradually relaxed after everyone realised that the police did not bother to harass its patrons. The sauna could be recognised immediately from its external façade because of its colossal signage and the painted sketches of nude gladiators on its external wall facing South Bridge Road, near its junction with North Canal Road.
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It experimented with the novel concept of giving its customers the option of buying shares in the business. It also pioneered services like offering upmarket buffet meals on its premises, but unfortunately, demand for the meals and disco was poor, even though the spa facilities were a resounding success. It closed in late July 1999 due to high rental costs and other factors.

* Stroke

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The successor to Spartacus under the same management, located at 22 Ann Siang Road, it had a spell of success from 2000 to 2002 when it was the only gay sauna in Singapore and also the first to open 24 hours a day, all year round. The opening of other gay saunas to break its monopoly forced its owner to move into newer premises to refocus its strategy two years later.

* Rairua

A multi-level sauna along Neil Road, the brainchild of activist Alex Au, it opened in 2002 and positioned itself as Singapore's first luxury gay sauna, with prices to match.

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It pioneered Singapore's first 'skin nights' touted as 'all nude, all floors, all night', a concept that unexpectedly proved so popular amongst supposedly 'conservative' Singaporean gays that such nude nights spread to all saunas within the span of one year and continue to be a major draw. It also organised special events like cultural talks, personalised photography [3] and naturist art sessions, and erotic dancing by showerboys. Unfortunately, due to the expiry of its lease and disagreements with its landlord over maintenance, it closed down in April 2005.



Outdoor venues

One important principle which has governed the peculiar locations of contemporary outdoor cruising areas is the "gentrification-induced shift" phenomenon. Older areas which had been patronised in the past had to be abandoned as urban redevelopment caused the destruction of conditions conducive to cruising such as poor lighting, sparse human traffic and the presence of dark, derelict buildings/environs. Thus, the present siting of cruising areas in the Ann Siang area may be explained by the gradual shift of activity from Boat Quay to the China Square vicinity to Ann Siang Hill as these areas were successively gentrified. To some extent, a "shopping centre/public building shift" was likewise induced by redevelopment eg. from Plaza Singapura to the former National Library to Raffles City.

* Boat Quay and the adjoining back alleys parallel to the Singapore River's west bank

Very cruisy at night before the area was rejuvenated with the present row of restaurants in the early 1990s. Police patrol cars would occasionally drive up and record the IC numbers of gay men who were doing nothing other than chatting with each other, a form of intentional harassment.

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Surreptitious sex also took place at the foot and back alley of OCBC building nearby, before bright lighting was installed which serves no real purpose other than to deter nocturnal homosex.

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Areas surrounding OCBC building such as the Raffles Place MRT station and the construction sites of buildings on the other side of Philip Street were also popular and gave rise to the novel phenomenon of car-cruising. Unattractive cruisers could increase their chances of picking up handsome gay pedestrians if they drove big flashy cars.

The streets traversing China Square, namely Hokkien Street, Nankin Street and Chin Chew Street were overrun especially on weekend nights by gay men and car-cruisers when the whole area was lined with abandoned, dark, derelict buildings in the 1980s. Many would stand or sit along the corridors of these dilapidated buildings and people-watch, chat, fondle each other or step into passing cars.

* Esplanade Park- the whole area between Queen Elizabeth walk and Connaught Drive was lined by bushes enclosed in tiled rectangular stone enclosures where strollers could sit and chat before the present arts centre was built in the early 2000s. It was frequented for decades by especially gay young men who acted more girlishly than usual to attract straight pick-ups for the night. Others came looking for South Asian men, of which there were many. Some activity also spilled over into The Padang, which at night, was mainly the territory of straight couples making out on mats. Other parks which were relatively cruisy but less well known in the 1970s were Central Park, accessible via the long flight of steps up from River Valley swimming pool, Fort Canning Park nearby, Labrador Park, accessible only by car or motorbike, Mount Faber, the Botanic Gardens and MacRicthie Reservoir.


Indoor public venues

* Toilets- public toilets have their fair share of furtive homosex. Some of the historically popular ones which no longer exist were those near Hong Lim Park, at the former Odeon cinema where Orchard Cineleisure now stands, along Balestier Road next to the open market and at the former National Library along Stamford Road.

* Swimming Pools- the most notorious one no longer extant was River Valley swimming pool. It was one of the few public pools built in the city area, sandwiched between Liang Court and the imposing backdrop of Fort Canning Park. In one incident, two men were caught by the lifeguard for underwater fellatio and jailed. It was also one of the few swimming pools where outdoor photography was banned. Less well known were Yan Kit swimming pool, Jurong swimming pool and Bukit Merah swimming pool.

* Shopping centres- the upper levels and toilets of Plaza Singapura and Serangoon Shopping Centre were popular cruising grounds during the 1980s.