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Entertainment venue

Type - Entertainment venue
Beach House
50-50 Club
Athol Pleasure Grounds
Australia's Wonderland
Beatle Village
Booker T Washington Club
Bullen's Animal World Wallacia
Burland Hall
California Café
Carousel Club
Chequers nightclub
City Recital Hall
Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths
Crystal Palace Rink
Cyclorama
Diamond Horseshoe Club
Fairyland Pleasure Grounds
French's Tavern
Gaiety Ballroom
Gaiety Studio
Hawaiian Eye
Hub Theatre
Ivy's Birdcage
Jewel Box
Journalists Club building
Kandy's Garden of Eden
Karen's Kastle
Kings Cross Theatre
Kinselas
Kit Kat Club
Livio's Striparama
Luna Park
Nithsdale House
Pink Pussycat Club
Purple Onion
Romano's
Royal Hall of Industries
Ruby Red's
Snake Pit La Perouse
St Georges Hall
Staccato Club
Star City Casino
Star Drive-In Matraville
Stork Club
Surf City
Sydney Aquarium
Sydney Entertainment Centre
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Wildlife World
The Annexe
The Wharf
Trocadero Newtown
Venus Room
Whisky a Go Go
Ziegfeld Club

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Entertainment venue

Beach House

Nightclub in a former car showroom on Elizabeth Street in the city in the 1960s. It was run by John Harrigan, the manager of Surf City and other venues.

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50-50 Club

Sydney's best known illegal casino, sly-grog nightclub and cocaine den during the 1930s.

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Athol Pleasure Grounds

Recreational and social venue adjacent to the dance hall built in 1908. Sydneysiders would come by ferry for a day of picnics and games though the practice waned by mid century.

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Australia's Wonderland

Theme park at Eastern Creek which operated between 1985 and 2004, and was the largest in the southern hemisphere.

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Beatle Village

Nightclub and live music venue at 124 Oxford Street in the 1960s where bands like the Easybeats and the Missing Links played.

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Booker T Washington Club

Nightclub in Surry Hills established by the American Red Cross during World War II, exclusively open to those of African or Aboriginal cultural background.

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Bullen's Animal World Wallacia

Animal theme park opened by the Bullen circus family in 1968.

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Burland Hall

Ice skating rink and grand pleasure palace on King Street, Newtown which lasted less than a decade before conversion to a department store as Marcus Clark & Co, and later a cinema. From 1986 to 1995 it housed the Newtown public library before it was converted again to office and retail space. The Art Deco facade was constructed during the 1930s.

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California Café

Cafe and impromptu performance space first at number 9 then number 41 Darlinghurst Road which introduced American style sandwiches to Sydney.

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Carousel Club

Nightclub in Kings Cross on the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street that was owned by Abe Saffron & Sammy Lee who had built the venue to house the revue 'Les Girls'.

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Chequers nightclub

Nightclub established by Chinese entrepreneurs Denis and Keith Wong which attracted a colourful and often notorious clientele to its original basement location in The Strand Arcade in the 1950s. It then moved to 79 Goulburn Street.

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City Recital Hall

Concert venue with three tiers of sloped seating for 1238 which was constructed as part of a major redevelopment of the music and business precinct which had existed for over a century around Ash Street.

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Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths

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Pleasure gardens, baths and aquarium constructed at the northern end of Coogee Beach. The original 'Coogee Palace' covered the whole block bound by Dolphin, Beach, Bream and Arden streets. A promenade was constructed in 1889 could accommodate 3,000 people. From the 1920s, parts of the site were leased to shopkeepers and residents. In 1935, the aquarium displayed the shark at the centre of the shark arm murder case. A conservation order was placed in 1982 and in 1984 the building's huge dome collapsed. In 1987 the building was restored and reopened as The Beach Palace Hotel. In 2014 the building was purchased by the Merivale group and reopened as the Coogee Pavilion, a restaurant and bar complex.

Crystal Palace Rink

Entertainment venue in York St used for circus performances and roller skating. It was also used as an exhibition space.

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Cyclorama

Entertainment venue which presented a circular painted panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg. Whilst static it was enlivened by the use of mirrors, magnifiers and sound effects. It survived the arrival of moving pictures but closed in 1906. The site was then used as an ice skating rink called the Glacarium.

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Diamond Horseshoe Club

Club located in Oxford Street,Woollahra, where Lea Sonia would often appear in drag.

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Fairyland Pleasure Grounds

Originally market gardens on the Lane Cove River which were turned into picnic grounds in the 1920s and developed with wharf, dance hall and playgrounds as their popularity increased. It closed in the 1970s and was incorporated into Lane Cove National Park.

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French's Tavern

Wine bar at 86 Oxford St which provided a venue for many emerging bands in the 1970s.

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Gaiety Ballroom

Dance hall auditorium in Darlinghurst which was burnt down in 1954. Patrons would enter the hall via the Gaiety Milk Bar.

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Gaiety Studio

Facility in Darlinghurst which contained a dance hall and numerous organisations including a milk bar and dance school.

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Hawaiian Eye

Nightclub or 'discotheque' in the city in the 1960s and 1970s that was owned and managed by John Harrigan and Denis Wong.

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Hub Theatre

Former vaudeville venue in Bedford Street Newtown which was converted to a cinema in the 1930s. With the relaxation of Australia's censorship laws, The Hub became an insalubrious and infamous 'blue movie house' into the 1990s.

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Ivy's Birdcage

Popular club above Taylor Square on Oxford Street which featured drag shows. It was the second venue opened by entrepreneur, Ivy Richter. Her first was at Bondi Junction called Chez Ivy's. Richter described the venue:

...it was $2 to go in. You bought your own grog. And so we had, in one corner was the band, round the other were these lovely round tables and chairs, there was a seat built in all the way along and a dance floor...And then you'd go up to the next floor. And that's when we had all the birdcages up and the stage up one end....

The club closed down after two fires.

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Jewel Box

Kings Cross nightclub which featured 'drag' acts.

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Journalists Club building

Club building at 36-40 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills, that was purchased by the Sydney Journalists Club in 1956 and opened as their club in 1958. The club was the scene of controversy in the 1970s when women journalists launched a symbolic fight over gender equality, which included the right to order a beer at the bar. It was also a well known venue for live music in the 1980s. The venue closed in 1996 and the association was wound up in 1997. The building was demolished by its new owners and apartments were constructed on the site.

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Kandy's Garden of Eden

Drag venue at 95 Enmore Road Enmore.

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Karen's Kastle

Nightclub in Redfern featuring drag shows

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Kings Cross Theatre

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Cinema on the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Streets at Kings Cross that opened in April 1916. Part of Frank Waddington's chain of picture houses, the cinema seated over 2000 and was described as 'particularly lavish'. A 'junior' nightclub called the Birdcage, run by radio compere Peter Bergin was open briefly in the venue in 1963 after the theatre closed, and soon replaced by John Harrigan's Surf City, that occupied the building from 1963 until 1966 when the building was demolished, to be replaced by the Crest Hotel.

Kinselas

Former drapers which was converted to a funeral chapel by architect C Bruce Dellit. The foyer contains a sculpture by Raymond Hoff and the whole was considered one of the finest Art Deco style funerary spaces in Sydney. The building is now used as a bar and function rooms.

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Kit Kat Club

Nightclub in Kings Cross.

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Livio's Striparama

Strip show in Darlinghurst Road during the 1960s.

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Luna Park

Amusement park built on the site of the Dorman Long workshops at Milsons Point after the Sydney Harbour Bridge was completed in 1932. It closed in 1979 after a fatal fire on the Ghost Train ride, but reopened in 1982.

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Nithsdale House

Two storey building opposite Hyde Park at 167 Liverpool Street and the corner of Nithdale Street. Built in 1873 as the home and a dance academy and ballroom of owner Frank Hillard Needs on the site of Figtree Cottage. Medical professionals also took rooms there in the 1890s. In 1903 it was purchased from the Needs family by the Sydney City Mission, who used the assembly rooms as their headquarters and continued to lease out other rooms. It was purchased from the Mission in 1913 by the developer of a picture theatre and sold again in 1922 before being demolished.

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Pink Pussycat Club

Strip club in Darlinghurst Road.

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Purple Onion

Nightclub at 83 Anzac Parade Kensington famous in the 1970s for elaborate drag shows.

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Romano's

Restaurant which became one of Sydney's most elaborate and fashionable, open from the 1920s to the 1960s.

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Royal Hall of Industries

Exhibition hall at the Sydney showgrounds Moore Park.

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Ruby Red's

Lesbian bar and dance venue on Crown Street in the 1970s and 80s.

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Snake Pit La Perouse

Enclosure established at La Perouse about 1909 where a man would handle snakes to educate and entertain weekend visitors.

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St Georges Hall

Concert venue in Newtown that also hosted dancing, theatre and public meetings from the 1880s and provided serious competition to the civic amenity of the nearby town hall. Now used for larger school productions.

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Staccato Club

First strip club in Australia.

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Star City Casino

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The only legal casino in Sydney, the complex also contains theatres, restaurants and a hotel.

Star Drive-In Matraville

Drive-in movie theatre which operated at 4 Wassall Street. Matraville, for nearly 30 years until home video and changing entertainment modes made it no longer profitable.

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Stork Club

Nightclub in Sylvania Waters which featured drag shows.

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Surf City

One of Sydney's biggest 'beat' music venues in the 1960s, located in the former Kings Cross Theatre that was demolished to make way for the underground railway station and the Crest Hotel.

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Sydney Aquarium

Aquarium and tourism complex at Darling Harbour.

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Sydney Entertainment Centre

Large entertainment venue at Darling Harbour opened in 1983 and demolished in 2016.

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Sydney Opera House

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Jorn Utzon's Sydney landmark.

Sydney Wildlife World

Tourist showcase for Australia's wildlife at Darling Harbour.

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The Annexe

Nightclub in Kings Cross which featured 'drag' acts.

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The Wharf

Pier 4/5 at Walsh Bay which was converted to an entertainment precinct in the early 1980s.

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Trocadero Newtown

Ornate roller skating rink complete with hair salons for men and women, a cafe and oyster saloons. With a roof that opened and fountain centrepiece it proved a popular entertainment venue in the late nineteenth century.

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Venus Room

Nightclub in Orwell Street Kings Cross.

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Whisky a Go Go

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Nightclub on William St Kings Cross during the 1960s and 1970s.

Ziegfeld Club

Nightclub in King Street Sydney which operated from 1920 and was a well known venue for drag acts.

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