Welcome to this portal site about the past and present of Amsterdam's gay and lesbian nightlife!

This website provides an overview of the Amsterdam gay streets, with their history and all the current gay and lesbian bars and clubs. The links point to websites and articles with more extensive information.

Compared to other Gay Capitals, Amsterdam is almost like a Gay Village. But despite being small in size, the Amsterdam gay scene has a long history and a large variety of places. They are concentrated in and around the following streets:




Each of these streets has its own character and history:


Zeedijk

In 1927, 't Mandje opened on this street, which is the oldest still existing LGBT bar of Amsterdam. In the 1960s and 70s a few more gay places were added, but in the 1980s all of them were closed down. However, Café 't Mandje was reopened in 2008.

In the northern part of the Zeedijk, a concentration of gay bars emerged again since 1998, but since 2016 only The Queen's Head is left, a café famous for its drag show bingo nights.

- Street party: Hartjesdagen
- Memorabilia: Zeedijk




Warmoesstraat

Here, the gay leather scene made its appearance at the end of the 1950s with hotel Tiemersma, from where the famous leather bar Argos was opened in 1965. A series of gay and leather bars followed in the 1960s and until 2010 there was also a disco called Cockring.

Besides the colorful LGBT café-restaurant Getto, the leather and cruise bars The Eagle and Dirty Dicks can be found on Warmoesstraat.

- Street party: Leather Pride
- Memorabilia: Warmoesstraat
- History: Leatherhistory.eu




Spuistraat

During the late 1950s there was the chic gay café Circuit at the southern end of Spuistraat. In the northern part a few gay sex clubs opened in the 1980s, of which only Boysclub 21 is left.

Not far from there, at the Nieuwezijds Kolk, are the cruise bars Cuckoo's Nest and The Web, as well as the only gay sauna of the city: Nieuwezijds (NZ).

In the central part of Spuistraat you can find the popular gay café Prik from 2006, with the drag show restaurant 't Sluisje just around the corner.

- Memorabilia: Spuistraat




Reguliersdwarsstraat

The first gay café in this street was Mac Donald, which opened in 1963. In 1970, it was followed by lunchroom Downtown which became the first open gay establishment of Amsterdam.

As of 1980 Reguliersdwarsstraat became the most famous and trendy gay street of Amsterdam, first with gay café April and in the 1990s with gay dancing Havana. After gay disco De Viking from the 1970s, a new popular disco called Exit opened in 1988.

Nowadays, you can go out in the open-minded gay club NYX and the gay bars BLEND, Soho, Taboo and Taboo Kantine, the Exit Café, and the Latin gay bar Reality.

- Past and present: Reguliers.net
- Memorabilia: Reguliersdwarsstraat




Amstel

The first gay bar along the Amstel opened as early as 1929, after the war followed by an increasing number of gay bars like the popular Gaiety. The most famous one was the Amstel Taveerne from 1964, which was renamed Amstel Fifty Four in 2007.

In addition, you can also find the gay cafés Fame, Queers and Montmartre, with the small gay club YOLO a little further. Around the corner from Rembrandtplein is the well-known transgender bar De Lellebel.

Before 2015, various kinds of gay bars were also found in the adjacent streets Paardenstraat and Amstelstraat, where also the world-famous gay disco iT was located during the 1990s.

- Memorabilia: Amstel




Kerkstraat

Unique opened here in 1951 as the first gay hotel in Amsterdam, with more cafés, shops and the gay bathhouse Thermos Night following in the 1960s and 70s. At that time it made Kerkstraat the main gay street of Amsterdam.

Gay hotel Amistad is still here, while you can go out to the Spijker Bar from 1979 and the popular fetish club Church from 2008.

- Street party: StreetHeart Festival
- Memorabilia: Kerkstraat
- Old photos: Blast from the Past: Kerkstraat





Elsewhere in the city

Elsewhere in the center of Amsterdam there were a few inns where gay men met already in the 18th century. In the early 20th century there were about five gay bars and around 1930 there was also a well-known gay café in the Nes.

In 1952 the DOK was opened at the Singel, which became the largest gay dancing of post-war Europe, not less popular than De Schakel, the community center of gay rights organization COC near the Leidseplein. The best-known gay bathhouse was Thermos, which from 1971 to 2015 was located at Raamstraat.

Today there are also a few more gay venues spread outside the aforementioned gay streets, such as the alternative LGBT disco De Trut and the lesbian cafés Saarein and Bar Buka.

- Memorabilia: Amsterdam Gay & Lesbian Nightlife

Below you will find links to useful LGBT nightlife websites:

Amsterdam   Netherlands   International

Gay streets:
- Reguliersdwarsstraat

Nightlife guides:
- GayOldTown.amsterdam
- GayAmsterdam.com
- Nighttours.com: Amsterdam
- Patroc.com: Amsterdam
- GayLINC.nl

Calendar:
- GayAmsterdam.com: Agenda

Tours:
- LGBT Gay Tours Amsterdam

Photos:
- Wikimedia Commons  New
- Gay Businesses 1983-2010

Memorabilia:
- IHLIA @ Historypin  New

History:
- The Amsterdam gay bar culture
- Graveyard of LGBTQI pubs & clubs

Nightlife guides:
- Nighttours.com: Netherlands
- GayGuide.net: Netherlands

Calendar:
- Nighttours.com: Netherlands

Photos:
- Wikimedia Commons  New

Memorabilia:
- IHLIA @ Historypin  New

History:
- LGBT history in the Netherlands

Gay streets:
- Canal Street, Manchester
- Le Marais, Paris
- Hell's Kitchen, New York City
- Church-Wellesley, Toronto
- Le Village Gai, Montréal

Nightlife guides:
- GayBars.eu
- Gay Travel Guide Europe
- GayGuide.net

Photos:
- Wikimedia Commons: Gay bars

T-Shirts:
- Wearing Gay History  New

History:
- Wikipedia: Gay bar
- OUTgoing New York City
- NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
- San Francisco Gay History
- Molly Houses in 18th century London

LGBT news:
- PinkNews - Advocate - Queer.de

Podcast:
- Making Gay History

Archives:
- IHLIA LGBT Heritage
- Fonds Suzan Daniel
- Schwules Museum Berlin
- ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives