Just In: Odd Culture Is Taking Over Queer Icon The Imperial Hotel Erskineville

Odd Culture Group is on an absolute tear. In the past two and a bit years it’s opened kitschy basement Pleasure Club, swanky French spot Bistro Grenier and daiquiri discotheque Razz Room.

Now the group, which started with a single Newtown bar, has announced it’s taking over iconic LGBTQIA+ venue The Imperial Hotel from September 1 in partnership with its current operator, Universal Hotels (Universal, The Oxford, The Riley). From 2027 Odd Culture plans to spend $5 million revitalising the site, to guard the long-term future of queer nightlife in Sydney.

“It’s one of the iconic queer venues of Australia,” says Odd Culture founder and CEO James Thorpe. “As an early ‘out’ gay person, I found myself and discovered who I was there. Everyone seems to have a story about the Imperial. Our head of PR, Brian, met his husband there.”

Pioneering lesbian hotelier Dawn O’Donnell acquired “the Impy” in 1983, turning it into what it is today. Homosexuality wasn’t decriminalised in NSW until the following year. The pub notably appeared in 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and was last year added to the NSW State Heritage Register.

The pub’s ground floor will almost double in size during the redevelopment, with an expanded beer garden becoming among the largest in the inner west. A new 24-hour club will also launch.

“I’m someone who loves to make the great pilgrimage to Berlin and Amsterdam every year and the difference is just palpable in how those spaces run over there,” Thorpe says. “I want to create something special like that for the Sydney queer scene. And I don’t just mean cis gay men, I mean the full spectrum of the queer community.”

But despite the grand plans, Odd Culture isn’t rushing into anything, he says.

“For the first little bit, our role is just going to be to listen, see how the venue moves and listen to feedback from the staff, and then work collaboratively collaboratively with them on the future of the pub.

“One of the hats I wear is president of the Newtown Enmore Business Community, and I can tell you the community in the inner west really, really gives a shit about about the community and our pubs. And the staff at the Imperial, who I got to meet properly for the first time yesterday, are all really passionate, really invested, in the venue.”