Just three weeks after Mardi Gras, Oxford Street’s biggest night of the year, a venue feted as “a cultural icon in the heart of Sydney’s queer community” is no more.
Stonewall Hotel entered voluntary administration on Monday, nine months after it was acquired by US company Pride Holdings Group, and hailed by its new owners as the “number one LGBTQ entertainment complex in Australia”.
A notice at Stonewall Hotel on Oxford Street informing the business was in the hands of administrators. (ABC News: Adam Griffiths)
Owner Craig Bell said in a statement on social media the decision was “sad and difficult” after 28 years of operation, but “change is constant, and Stonewall’s story is far from over”.
Its “next chapter” would be at its brand-new sister venue in Newtown, which opened its doors to patrons in early March.
Tim Millgate, who occasionally performs under the drag name Tina Turnon, at the Stonewall Hotel (third from right). (Supplied)
Drag performer and Oxford Street local Tim Millgate, who occasionally performed at the venue as Tina Turnon, told the ABC he was shocked by the sudden closure after what appeared to be a thriving Mardi Gras season.
“It was one of the first queer spaces that we went to, you know, growing up … and as…