As the shutters continue to come down on iconic venues along Sydney’s Oxford Street, city leaders say a lazy space tax could be the answer to reviving abandoned buildings on the once-vibrant night-time strip, forcing landlords to pay if they keep their doors closed.
Plenty of Sydneysiders have stories of late nights spent at the Stonewall Hotel, the daggy but charming big brother of Oxford Street’s LGBTQ nightlife scene. Drag performers made their names there, cash-strapped students flocked for the $10 Long Island iced teas, and for many, the venue marked their first foray into queer culture.
It’s where Sydney MP Alex Greenwich had his first same-sex kiss.
Owner Craig Bell announced this week the venue would close after 28 years. It has gone into administration after last year selling to American group Pride Holdings, and weeks after opening a sister bar – Stonewall Newtown. The Darlinghurst building was plagued with issues, including damage to the ceiling, and had in recent years attempted to bring down costs by closing on Mondays and Tuesdays during the winter.
Stonewall is the latest much-loved LGBTQ venue to shut up shop. The Bookshop Darlinghurst, which sold books for and about the LGBTQ community, closed its doors last year.
“The optimist in me says Oxford Street is going through a reset and a transition, that there are still a lot of LGBTQ venues pumping,” Greenwich said. “The way in which people go out and connect is changing; we need to have that diversity on Oxford Street.”
The community are not just drinking at clubs, but gathering at gym classes, museums, running clubs and art classes, Greenwich said.
Music and Night-time Economy Minister John Graham said the government wants Oxford Street to remain the hub for Sydney’s LGBTQ community.
“Stonewall has been such a historic venue, it is sad to see it go. We wish them well on their new venue in Newtown,” Graham said. “Since coming to office, we’ve been fighting for the survival of nightlife hotspots like Oxford Street. That includes completely removing the lockout laws, rolling out Special Entertainment Precincts across the state and extending Mardi Gras trading hours until 6am.”
But the strip has seen better days. Many shops have sat empty for years, crumbling into disrepair as landlords choose to landbank the buildings and let them gain value, rather than rent the spaces out to shops or artists.
Greenwich and City of Sydney councillors Jess Miller and Zann Maxwell have backed tax incentives to stop landholders sitting on prime real estate and bringing down the look and feel of key city precincts.
Miller calls it a “lazy space tax”.
“It’s incredibly selfish,” she said. “The principle is use it or lose it … why are all those shops empty? Part of the reason is whoever owns them is making more money keeping them empty.”
Construction on the street’s most high-profile developments, known as Oxford and Foley, began in 2022, and much of the strip has since been covered in hoarding. That development was due to be completed by 2023, but has yet to open.
That’s given Newtown, already a favourite suburb for the LGBTQ community, the perfect opportunity to swoop in as a challenger to become the gay heart of Sydney. The new Stonewall, which has taken a 10-year lease on the King Street bar formerly known as Kuleto’s, joins nearby Newtown Hotel and the Imperial in Erskineville.
Inner West Councillor Mat Howard doesn’t shy away when asked if Newtown is coming for Oxford Street’s gig.
“We have the momentum in the inner west – if there is a giant disco ball, it’s rolling west,” he said. “As the Pet Shop Boys said, ‘go west’.”
People want to go out where they live, Howard said, and with more LGBTQ people moving to the inner west and the recent opening of Newtown’s Pride Centre, the council is leaning in heavily to entice more queer businesses to the area.
Another reason queer businesses are struggling for air on Oxford Street is that they are relying on older models that have not evolved with how revellers go out now, Peter Shopovski of Sydney collective House of Mince and the Colombian Hotel said.
“Audiences have changed. They’re more selective, they’re more community-driven, and they’re looking for experiences that feel intentional rather than just somewhere to drink,” Shopovski said.
“Oxford Street has also been impacted by years of disruption. Lockout laws, reduced foot traffic, construction, and a general loss of momentum all played a role. When that happens, venues really need to adapt quickly, and not all of them have. What we’re seeing now is the result of that period, but also an opportunity to rethink how these spaces operate.”
Newtown has also become a more inclusive option for queer youth such as Tia Nicholson, 20, who says her group of mostly lesbian women hardly ever floats the idea of going out on Oxford Street.
“Oxford Street is definitely lacking. [King Street] – there’s more queer-friendly parties, rather than gay parties for men,” she said. “I would 100 per cent go to a lesbian or queer bar on Oxford Street. I think it’s just a real focus on patriarchy that is stopping us.”
In November last year, Redfern’s Bearded Tit said goodbye after 11 years as Sydney’s last lesbian bar.
“It was a space for arts and community, but also being an outlier of the Oxford street scene, as I’m not a gay man, that is where every other member of the LGBTQIA+ [community] went,” Nicholson said.
“It was a nice melting pot. You weren’t all the same identity, gender or sexuality, but you would all feel together there. I think it was really nice. It’s devastating that it’s shut.”
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Jessica McSweeney is a reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald covering urban affairs and state politics.Connect via email.