In this guide · 4 sections
Melbourne's gay bars are now concentrated in the inner north, on and around Smith Street on the Fitzroy-Collingwood border. This is where the explicitly queer venues sit today. The old Commercial Road strip in Prahran and South Yarra, which carried the scene through the 1980s and 1990s, faded after its two big hotels — the Market and the Xchange — closed around 2011.
Smith Street and the inner north
Smith Street is the spine of gay Melbourne. Sircuit is the long-running dance bar and one of the strip's anchors; above it, Mollie's Bar & Diner runs drag shows, drag bingo and DJ nights from a heated rooftop. Close by are UBQ, a dedicated queer bar with a downstairs cruise room called LCKR ROOM, and The 86, a cabaret and cocktail bar named for the tram that passes its door. These are proper gay venues, not just mixed-crowd pubs — the inner north has grown its own explicit scene rather than borrowing one.
A short tram or walk away are three more institutions: The Peel Hotel in Collingwood, part pub and part late-night dancefloor; DT's Hotel, a relaxed gay pub in Richmond; and The Laird in Abbotsford, Melbourne's men-only leather and bear pub. To reach the strip, take the 86 tram up Smith Street from the CBD.
The west
Across town, Pride of our Footscray (POOFS) gives Melbourne's inner west its own community-owned queer bar, with drag shows, drag bingo and karaoke, a short walk from Footscray Station.
Midsumma
During Midsumma Festival (mid-January to early February), Melbourne's gay bars lift their programming — special events, performances, themed nights and visiting acts, with many of the festival's smaller events staged in bars across the inner north. This is when the bar scene is at its busiest.
Commercial Road today
Commercial Road still turns up in older guides as Melbourne's gay village, but that era ended more than a decade ago. A visitor heading there today for a night out will find far less than the listings of the 1990s suggest. The scene is in the north now.
