By katyha on Mon 18 Oct 2004 at 10:11
Duke's on Houndsditch looks far more like a bar than a fetish venue; but then most of the places that host fetish clubs seem to look fairly mainstream, apart from Mass. The ground floor had a bar and tables (and the cloakroom and reception) with music you could talk over. It wasn't too busy - we managed to get a table - but there wasn't much room to walk round. We sat and people-watched from our table, which is always fun. Some great outfits, and the people seemed friendly and non-intrusive.
Downstairs was another bar, a dancefloor and a playroom. The playroom had some really good features and one outstandingly bad one. Good: the equipment was interesting, with a couple of cages, all looking new and shiny. Also good: the play area was roped off, so people couldn't get too close. Also good: there was a dungeon monitor. Really really bad: because the dancefloor was next to the playroom, it was too loud to hear anything! It's such an obvious design flaw I can't believe people do it, but it's the second fetish club I've been to this year that's had this. A man beating a woman couldn't hear what she was saying - couldn't even hear her screaming, till she did it very loudly. It wasn't a problem for them at that point, but it's certainly a safety issue in general. And apart from anything else, part of the appeal of a fetish club dungeon is the sounds.
Anyway. Despite that, the dungeon did get used, and I have to mention one scene which was the most unusual I've noticed at a club. A naked man lay on a bench (under the bench, incidentally, was a cage with another naked man in it, possibly taking part in a different scene entirely) while a woman dressed in a latex nun's outfit carefully placed on him the following items: in his mouth, chocolate sauce, a banana cut in half and whipped cream; on his chest, slices of (I think) lemon, banana and possibly courgette, again with whipped cream; on his genitals, noodles with tomato ketchup, surrounded by lettuce leaves; down his legs, neat rows of carrot. (I thought they were prawns, but I was outvoted by my companions.) A volunteer from the audience was persuaded to help eat some of it, then she took it all off again and the scene was finished. Fascinating, in its own way. Very stylish.
I must admit I'm still mourning the demise of L'Amour, because my preference is for events that feel like play parties, not events that feel like dance clubs. So Club Rub wasn't ideal for me in that sense. Still, it was a very good night out.
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