Chariots gay sauna liverpool street london
We Were There
eur
Kiss and Tell Press
The first gay sauna I went to was Chariots in Shoreditch, also known as Chariots Liverpool Street. That was in London in By the time the place closed in , I’d been a few hundred times. I was in my element when I was there, and that joy made its way into the rest of my life.
This mini photobook is a tribute to one particular gay sauna, and to all the reliable queer spaces in our major cities that are being swallowed up by greed.
The images in We Were There were taken during the last days of Chariots with an old Samsung phone tucked into my towel. The text was found on various cruising forums.
32 pages, printed on gsm Bond paper, Covers: gsm Silk manuscript. Hand-stitched. Publication date:
Book dimensions: 6cm x 6cm ( x inches).
A zine about London's Chariot's sauna, RIP
Chariots RIP: what it was like adj at Britain’s biggest gay sauna
One of the last throwbacks to Shoreditch’s gloriously sleazy past, the sprawling gay sauna Chariots closed last weekend after serving 20 years as a cruising venue for gay men in London. The prime plot of land it sits on will be converted into a hotel. A luxury hotel, of course. For a personal perspective on its closure, we asked leading London cabaret performer Mr Blanche DuBois. Blanche’s first employment in London was at Chariots, and as we verb out, it was a liberating and eye-opening introduction to the city…
London was a very diverse city 13 years ago, when I arrived here from Mexico on a scholarship to research corporeal mime. As a student I had the right to work 20 hours a week. It was invigorating, not because of the prospect of getting paid, but because of where I’d decided to work: Chariots sauna in Shoreditch.
In my late teens back in Mexico, I had enjoyed hearing stories about saunas – about attractive men and astonishing spaces – from adventurous friends who had visit
Chariots - Shoreditch - CLOSED
Top Gay Sauna
Visited here for the 1st time on Thursday 26th Nov and was very pleased with what I found. It's a huge place, well maintained and very clean. Very nice staff (all foreign, as in most saunas) they were helpful and friendly. Good noun and drink. Plenty of private cabins, saunas and steam rooms all adj. Didn't see any glory-holes but, the place was so big I may have missed them. On the negative side, there only seemed to be 3 actual toilets (plenty urinals) and when I had the occasion to use the toilet, all 3 were blocked and disgusting. I went and brought it to the attention of the guy at the entrance kiosk and he immediately radioed for a cleaner to sort it out. This can happen in any sauna but I feel that there could be a few more toilets in the upstairs section. As for the guys! Well, I got lucky right away, early afternoon and it was a very pleasant rare hours. A expansive selection of men, young and mature , something for everyone I'd say. I would definitely proceed back.
Inside Chariots, London's biggest gay sauna
When protestors from Class War hurled paint across Brick Lane’s Cereal Killer Café in September, it showed how far Shoreditch had come. Old-school anarchist uprisings aside, the majority view is that the area has lost its edge, and is now just the playground of hipsters, tourists and hipster tourists. This may be real, but it’s worth remembering that right at its heart, at the cross of Shoreditch Elevated Street and Superb Eastern Street, sits a nightlife institution of such singular intensity that the neighbourhood’s new breed of bland, well-heeled residents would splutter into their planar whites if they knew what went on there.
Chariots is a gay sauna that’s somehow stood firm and resisted the developers for nearly 20 years. Amidst a devastating year for gay venues in London, alarm bells were set off in June when it was reported that the site might make way for a luxury hotel, but thankfully for its patrons, there’s been very small follow-up. ‘It was founded in ,’ says staff member Lew