Tag: gay sauna

Bathhouses and gay saunas are maligned as ‘seedy’ but are actually relaxing, friendly and much needed, argues José Rivera When I first read that London’s biggest gay sauna, Chariots, would be demolished to make way for a luxury hotel, I was really disappointed. Yet another historical gay safe haven would be lost to the gentrification sweeping major urban areas like London, Manhattan and the closer Brooklyn locales, Amsterdam, and beyond. As Dazed put so eloquently ‘assimilation is definitely not liberation’. The stigma...

Indonesian police detained over 50 men in a raid on what has been described as a “gay spa” in Jakarta. Friday night found police holding 51 males and 7 employees. They will be charged under pornography and prostitution laws and some could face up to six years in prison. Four Chinese nationals, a Singaporean, one Thai National, one Malaysian, and one Dutchman, were also presnt, but none of the foreigners would be charged. The arrests are the latest in a...

Four branches of Chariots have closed down in the past two years London gay sauna Chariots in Waterloo is to be shut down and turned into a hotel. One of the longest-running all-male saunas in the UK capital will be closed to make way for a 66-bedroom hotel in Lower Marsh. Lambeth Council unanimously approved the planning application last night (4 April). A Lambeth Council spokesperson told GSN: ‘The application was approved on Tuesday night, subject to conditions. ‘The committee felt that overall the...

Last August, Hengky Irawan snuck into Aarows, a gay sauna in Sydney, with a liter of acid, a funnel, and a knife. He then proceeded to fill up a lube dispenser with hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance that can cause severe burns to skin, eyes, and the mucous membrane. Luckily, the lube dispenser was equipped with a sensor that alerted staff it had been tampered with, so nobody was injured. Irawan was arrested and charged with administering poison with the intent to cause injury, distress or pain...