Sydney LGBTIQA+ icons proposed for state heritage listing

The City of Sydney is advocating for the inclusion of three new heritage places on the state's heritage register. According to a study undertaken by the council, each of the Oxford Street venues are historically significant places for LGBTIQA+ communities.

The three sites in the City of Sydney's proposal include the Oxford Hotel at 134 Oxford Street, Palms at 124 Oxford Street and the Universal nightclub at 85-91 Oxford Street. The council believes that these additions will grow the collection of LGBTIQA+ sites already recognised for their significance, including the Darlinghurst Police Station, Stonewall Hotel and the Mardi Gras parade route.

Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore noted that these places constitute a significant part of the social and physical fabric of Oxford Street.

"We know how important it is to our LGBTIQA+ communities to protect, preserve and recognise the rich cultural history along Oxford Street," the Lord Mayor said. Speaking of the three proposed sites, she commented, "Each of these venues has been strongly associated with the community since the late 1970s and early 1980s."

In a media communique, the City of Sydney noted that the Oxford Hotel has been associated with liquor trade since the 1850s. After several iterations as a pub and hotel, it officially opened as a gay venue on 16 July 1982, when it was promoted as "the latest gay pub on the Strip, restaurant, the Oxford Café upstairs."

As one of the city's oldest continually operating LGBTIQA+ venues, the hotel has been site of significant community events. These have included the annual fundraiser from the Australia's longest running HIV charity, the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, titled the "Boys Own Bake-off."

Next door, on a site with buildings dating back to 1855, the gay venue of Palms opened as an underground cabaret venue around 1977. According to the City of Sydney, "it became known as a safe and supportive environment for those rejecting the gender and sexual norms of the period." Trading as Scooters Bar and Diner from the late 1980s, the site readopted the Palms moniker when it reopened in 2000, aiming to be inclusive of women as well as gay men.

Further down the street, a two-storey inter-war building from the 1920s, now known as Universal, first opened as a licensed restaurant and gay disco in 1978. Originally trading as Tropicana, it reopened as Club 85 two years later, advertising itself as a "man's disco." After being damaged by fire just a few months later, the site reopened once more as a "disco for guys" called Midnight Shift in 1980, which remained operational until 2017. A result of declining trade associated with new lockout laws led to the bar's closure and ultimately to new ownership under Universal Hotels in 2018.

The proposal to nominate the three venues for individual heritage status was unanimously endorsed by council members at the end of 2024. The council further requested investigations into heritage listings for three other venues: 273 Crown Street, Surry Hills, which was designed in the 1920s and opened as Ruby Reds - allegedly Sydney's first lesbian bar - in 1979; 40-42 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst, a popular late-night venue from the mid-1950s known as the Taxi Club; and 207 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, which opened as a bookshop for LGBTIQA+ communities in the 1980s and still operates today.

Once submitted, the council's nominations for the three venues will be reviewed by the NSW government, after which they will be open for public feedback.