Image: Photo: Ann-Marie Calilhanna
The Stonewall Hotel has announced that they won’t be trading on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout winter.
The news was announced by the iconic Oxford Street venue yesterday (Tuesday July 9), with the bar’s usual lineup of entertainment now starting from Wednesdays. However, it does mean that the Tuesday trivia and karaoke events won’t be running for the foreseeable future.
Stonewall gave no direct reason for the closure, but anyone who’s walked along Oxford Street on a Monday or Tuesday night recently can attest to the fact that the iconic strip is rather dry in the early parts of the week.
This was backed up by the words a Stonewall insider shared with Gay Sydney News, saying that Mondays and Tuesdays are “completely dead” on the strip at the moment.
Furthermore, hospitality venues and small businesses in general have been struggling for a number of reasons. From COVID’s lingering impacts to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, many venues and businesses are struggling as is.
Development on Oxford Street has disproportionately affected small businesses as the project has carried on well past the projected time frame. Elsewhere, the lease for iconic LGBTQI+ nightclub ARQ Sydney was taken over by Darling Harbour’s Home The Venue, who were not initially planning to reopen post-pandemic.
Mondays and Tuesdays are expected to return to Stonewall in September. While this particularly cold Sydney winter rages on, the Hotel will be open from 4pm-2am on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and from 4pm-4:30am on Fridays and Saturdays.
