Torture Garden (fetish club)
Fetish club in London, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torture Garden (abbreviated as TG) is a fetish club in London, England. The club started in 1990 and is now Europe's largest fetish club. It features dance floors, musical acts, performance art, fashion shows, a couples room, and a BDSM dungeon.
Initially threatened with closure by the police,[1] it is now described as "legendary" and "a capital institution" by Time Out magazine.[2] It has also been described as "a combination of a fetish, S/M, body art, Modern Primitives, straight, gay, performance art, body ritual, fashion, techno/industrial/atmospheric music, multimedia, and cyberspace club".[3]
It is named for the novel The Torture Garden by Octave Mirabeau.[4]
Atmosphere
The co-founder of TG described the experience as "like entering a scene from a movie", and said that "we are basically about the celebration of sexuality and fantasy in a safe environment".[5] A lack of intimidating or threatening behaviour is characteristic of the club, in contrast to most nightclubs.[2] One journalist reported the "welcoming, liberating, anything-goes atmosphere".[6]
There is a strict dress code: "Fantasy Fetish, SM, Body Art, Drag, Rubber, Leather, PVC goes, but no cotton t-shirts, street wear, or regular club wear".[5] This has been summarised as "if what you’re wearing wouldn’t get you stared at in the street, don’t bother even queuing up to get in".[2]
Events
TG has hosted club nights in several other cities and countries, including Edinburgh,[7] Russia, Greece and Japan, and it also runs a Fetish fashion label.[2] TG ran a live stage show as the centerpiece of the Erotica exhibition at Olympia in 2004,[8] and hosted a night at the Barbican Centre art gallery to coincide with the "Seduced" exhibition.[9]
Rubber Banned, an exhibit of photographs of TG club-goers taken by fashion photographer Perou was shown in London and Paris in 2005.[10]
Celebrity attenders
Jean Paul Gaultier, Boy George, Marc Almond, Marilyn Manson, Dita Von Teese (who had her UK debut at Torture Garden),[11] performance artist Franko B,[12] 90's punk band Fluffy, Bob Carolgees and Jack Dee[5] have all been to TG nights.