REWIND
The colourful legacy of a St Kilda icon
THE REOPENING OF iconic St Kilda watering hole Prince Public Bar completes the revival of The Prince Hotel, which began in 2016 under the aegis of the Ryan family. The complex has long reflected the south Melbourne suburb’s eclectic personality and, in its lifetime, has spawned: one of Australia’s first boutique hotels; a fine-dining restaurant, Circa, which helped stoke the careers of some of the country’s top culinary talents including Andrew McConnell and Ben Shewry; and a legendary band room that was at the epicentre of the city’s punk rock scene in the 1980s.
Prince Public Bar itself is steeped in history; it’s known as one of Melbourne’s longest-standing LGBTQIA-friendly bars and has embraced the city’s diverse community since day one. “Since opening its doors in 1937, The Prince has been a mecca for people from all walks of life, and it’s one of the reasons so many people hold the pub so dear,” says The Prince Hotel’s managing director Andrew Ryan.
At the heart of this, every Sunday night for 14 years between 1977 and 1992, was Pokey’s Disco – a drag night that became a sensation as well as a lynchpin of Melbourne’s queer community and a catalyst for the shifting public acceptance of gay culture. Brainchild of the late Jan Hillier, pioneering Melbourne gay and lesbian bar owner and entrepreneur, and drag icon Doug Lucas, it began modestly with variety shows presented on a makeshift stage but grew into glamorous, high-end productions that looked to everything from Las Vegas to science fiction for inspiration and starred showgirls such as Terri Tinsel, Renée Scott and Debra Le Gae.
“Starting off, we expected a couple of hundred people there, but it took off like a rocket from the first night,” says Lucas, the night’s stand-up comic compère and also a star performer himself who could been seen dressed up as everything from the Statue of Liberty to a bride or banana. “It got bigger and bigger until we employed choreographers, hair stylists and a full-time costume maker.
“We had 1000 people through the doors at its peak every week,” he remembers. “We had fabulous lighting, fabulous sound, and we could do it at that standard because of the sheer number of people we had.”
With a meal included in the small admission price, Pokey’s was the kind of place you could take your parents: “They’d be knocked out by the standard of shows,” says Lucas. In its time it witnessed world-changing events such as the gay liberation movement and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and became an important community hub; it was at Pokey’s that Victoria’s first HIV/AIDS fundraisers took place. “It ended up like a big family atmosphere, a big extended family,” Lucas recalls fondly. “It was referred to as church, because it was on a Sunday.”
In renovating Prince Public Bar, one objective was to take cues from the pub’s Art Deco heritage. Original architectural sketches helped inspire the new design, central to which was the reinstation of a large, oval island bar as well as timber banquettes and tiles from the pub’s original supplier.
IF Architecture’s Iva Foschia, who led the remodelling, was also keen to celebrate its queer legacy. “When a project is steeped in history, it’s really important to us to respect its origins and, for the pub, it was about paying homage to its inclusiveness and colourful history,” she says. You’ll spot this tribute once you step through the door: “Showcasing this connection, we’ve introduced colourful glass shelving that suspends from the ceiling,” Foschia continues. “It’s an ode to the pride [rainbow] flag and will be a permanent reminder of [the pub’s] origins.”