Gay Villlage Amsterdam

News | Amstel Kerkstraat Reguliers Spuistraat Warmoesstraat Zeedijk Elsewhere in the city | Nederlands

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

Here you will find an overview of the Amsterdam gay streets, with their history and a listing of all the current gay and lesbian places with links to their websites and social media.

Reguliersdwarsstraat by night

NEWS

October 14, 2020

All bars and restaurants CLOSED again

Closed gay venues in Reguliersdwarsstraat

From October 15, 2020, all bars and restaurants are again obliged to keep their doors closed. This is one of the new measures with which the cabinet hopes to halt the rapid growth in the number of corona infections.

In principle, this new closure applies for four weeks, which is until November 11, 2020. In two weeks, so around October 27, the cabinet will assess whether the number of infections has fallen sufficiently to adjust the measures if necessary.

Clubs and discos have been closed since last spring's lockdown and likely will remain closed until a vaccine against the coronavirus is available.

Gay Streets in Amsterdam

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 with its own character:

Zeedijk    Warmoesstraat

Spuistraat    Amstel

Kerkstraat    Reguliersdwarsstraat

Elsewhere in the city

Click on the map!

Zeedijk

Already in 1927, café 't Mandje opened at Zeedijk and attracted a mix of dykes, queers, whores and folk boys. A similar variety of people visited café Monico, which was located at the nearby Lange Niezel for no less than 60 years: from 1941 to 2001.

Zeedijk in 1976 with second from the right Café 't Mandje
(photo: Han van Gool - click to enlarge)

In the 1960s and '70s a few more gay places opened at Zeedijk, but in the 1980s all of them were closed down. However, 't Mandje was reopened in 2008, making it the oldest still existing LGBT bar of Amsterdam.

In the northern part of the Zeedijk, a concentration of four gay bars emerged around the year 2000, of which only The Queen's Head is left. This café opened in 1998 and is famous for its dragshow bingo nights.

Street party:

Mid-August anually: Hartjesdagen

Gay venues:

Café 't Mandje: Website - Facebook

Café The Queen's Head: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: Zeedijk

Warmoesstraat

In Warmoesstraat, 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. Also at this street was the travesty bar Oporto, which around the mid-1960s was known as Madame Arthur.

Warmoesstraat in 2012 with the flags of various leather businesses
(photo: Tom Morris - click to enlarge)

Since the 1960s, gay and leather bars like The Eagle, Club Jaecques and hotel/bar Stablemaster opened at Warmoesstraat. From 1987 to 2010 there was also a disco called Cockring, which was briefly continued under the names Fuxxx and The Warehouse.

Nowadays, the leather scene is represented at Warmoesstraat by the leather and cruise bars The Eagle and Dirty Dicks and the leather and fetish store RoB. The leather shop of Mr. B moved to Prinsengracht in 2018.

Street party:

End of October annually: Leather Pride

Gay venues:

Cruise bar Dirty Dicks: Website - Facebook

Cruise bar The Eagle: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: Warmoesstraat

History:

European leather and fetish 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 of the street a few gay brothels opened in the 1980s, of which currently only Boysclub 21 is left.

Not far from there, at the Nieuwezijds Kolk, are the cruise bars The Cuckoo's Nest and The Web, both dating back to the mid-1980s and each with a large darkroom. Somewhat more to the north, the only existing gay sauna of the city was opened in 2013: Nieuwezijds (NZ).

Spuistraat with gay café Prik during EuroPride 2016
(click to enlarge)

In the central part of Spuistraat you can find the popular gay café Prik, which opened in 2006. Just around the corner is the only dragshow restaurant of the city, called 't Sluisje, established in 1995.

Gay venues:

Cruise bar The Cuckoo's Nest: Website - Facebook

Sauna Nieuwezijds: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Café Prik: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Cruise bar The Web: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: Spuistraat

Reguliersdwarsstraat

The first gay café in Reguliersdwarsstraat was Mac Donald, which opened in 1963 but still had blinded windows and a doorman at the door. This changed in 1970, when Lunchroom Downtown was opened as the first open gay place of Amsterdam.

The Reopening of Reguliersdwarsstraat in 2011
(click to enlarge)

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 Exit Café, as well as the gay bars BLEND, Soho, Taboo and Taboo Kantine. On the Rembrandtplein-side of Reguliersdwarsstraat there's the Caribbean gay bar Reality, which was opened in 1996.

Homepage:

Everything about the past and present: Reguliers.net

Business association: Secret Village

Gay venues:

Bar BLEND: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Lunchroom Downtown: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Exit Café: Facebook - Instagram

Club NYX: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Reality Bar: Website - Facebook

Café-club Soho: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Taboo Bar: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Taboo Kantine: Facebook - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: 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.

Queen's Day outside the gay bars alongside Amstel in 2012
(click to enlarge)

In addition, you can also find the gay cafés FAME and Montmartre, with the small gay club YOLO a little further. Around the corner from Rembrandtplein is the well-known dragshow bar De Lellebel, which opened in 1997, and somewhat further the new gay café Brug34.

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.

Gay venues:

Café Amstel Fifty Four: Facebook - Instagram

Café Brug34: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Bar FAME: Website - Facebook

Café De Lellebel: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Café Montmartre: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Club YOLO: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: Amstel

Kerkstraat

In 1951, Unique opened its doors at Kerkstraat as the first gay hotel in Amsterdam, soon followed by the West End hotel with on the ground floor the Cosmo Bar. The hotel and the bar lasted until the year 2000.

Kerkstraat in 1983 with De Pul, hotel Aero and Club Lord
(photo: Gerard Dukker - click to enlarge)

In the 1960s and '70s, gay cafés such as Incognito, Bonaparte, De Pul and Club Lord, the Homolulu nightclub and the Thermos Night sauna were added. At that time it made Kerkstraat the main gay street of Amsterdam, until that position was taken over by Reguliersdwarsstraat in the early 1980s.

Still there is the gay hotel Amistad, while you can go out to the Spijker Bar, which still has the atmosphere from the late 1970s. Also in Kerkstraat are the popular fetish club Church (opened in 2008) and the fetish shops The Bronx and Black Body.

Street party:

Mid-September annually: StreetHeart Festival

Gay venues:

Club Church: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Spijker Bar: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: Kerkstraat

History:

Gay News: Blast from the Past: Kerkstraat

Elsewhere in the city

Already in the early 18th century, gay men could meet and have sex at a few places that were similar to the molly houses in London. In the early 20th century Amsterdam had about five gay bars and around 1930 there was also a well-known gay café right around the corner of Dam square.

Gay disco iT at Amstelstraat in 1991
(photo: David Jarrett - click to enlarge)

In 1952 the DOK was opened at the Singel, which became the largest gay dancing of post-war Europe. It was not less popular than De Schakel, the community center of gay rights organization COC near the Leidseplein. The biggest and 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, the lesbian cafés Saarein and Bar Buka, as well as café-restaurant Lola The Green Aardvark.

Gay venues:

Bar Buka: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Lola The Green Aardvark: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Café Saarein: Website - Facebook - Instagram

Disco De Trut: Website - Instagram

Memorabilia:

IHLIA @ Historypin: Amsterdam Gay & Lesbian Nightlife

Below you will find links to useful LGBT nightlife websites:

Amsterdam Netherlands Foreign

Various LGBT links

Amsterdam gay nightlife

Gay streets:
- Reguliersdwarsstraat

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

Calendars:
- GayAmsterdam.com: Agenda
- Gay Parties Amsterdam

Tours:
- LGBT Gay Tours Amsterdam

Photos:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Gay Businesses 1983-2010

Memorabilia:
- IHLIA @ Historypin

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

Former gay café April (1981-2010) during
the Amsterdam Gay Pride of 2007
(click to enlarge)

Dutch gay nightlife

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

Calendar:
- Nighttours.com: Netherlands

Photos:
- Wikimedia Commons

Memorabilia:
- IHLIA @ Historypin

History:
- LGBT history in the Netherlands

Gay café Kalff in Utrecht during a memorial
for gay disco De Roze Wolk (1982-2006)
(click to enlarge)

Foreign gay nightlife

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

Calendars:
- Gay Events Belgium
- Gay Partys Berlin

Photos:
- Wikimedia Commons: Gay bars

T-Shirts:
- Wearing Gay History

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

Gay bar Stonewall Inn in New York City
(photo: Daniel Case - click to enlarge)

Various LGBT links

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