Market Hotel

About this place Market Hotel

Market Hotel has been the anchor of Commercial Road's gay strip for years — the pub that defines the South Yarra end of Melbourne's traditional gay neighbourhood and provides a reliable, unpretentious social venue for the local gay community. Commercial Road between Chapel Street and Williams Road has been Melbourne's gay centre since the 1980s; Market Hotel's longevity on the strip reflects a genuine community embeddedness that goes beyond the comings and goings of individual venues. The pub runs across multiple bars and levels and provides the range of programming expected from a central gay hotel: DJ nights, themed events, drag entertainment, and the daily trade of regular drinkers and visitors to the strip. The crowd at Market Hotel tends toward the mixed mainstream gay demographic — gay men of various ages and subcultures, visitors to Melbourne's gay scene, and the local South Yarra and Prahran residents who have been coming to the strip for years. For visitors to Melbourne who want to experience Commercial Road's traditional gay strip, Market Hotel is the natural starting point.