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My Favourite Pub and My Favourite Barmaid
The Prince of Wales in St Kilda, Melbourne was an eight-minute walk from my flat. It sat on the corner of Fitzroy and what is essentially Acland Street. It has been around for about 150 years. It has had more than one or two manifestations but I became a regular there a couple of years after the massive renovation in 1999 when the entire building complex was bought by the Van Handels. It was not a particularly glamorous bar but the walls were covered in posters and it had a comfortable feel. Nothing too hipster or glamorous. It is the only pub I know that has labourers, blue-collar, white-collar and creatives, lesbian, gay, straight, transgender and queer all mixed up together at one pub. Well not quite mixed up, one side is known affectionately as the “Poofta Bar” and is the oldest known gay bar in Melbourne. I was told this by Neil; pianist, composer and later my upstairs neighbour. He had been drinking at that bar for many more years than he would appreciate me mentioning. Not that everyone in there identified as gay, some of us just liked the people and the atmosphere and of course Renee, the barmaid. On the other side was the public bar, extremely straight and not so much blue-collar as blue singlet. A collection of labourers, chippies, sparkies, artists and musicians and some old boys who had been drinking, playing pool and telling tall tales there since god knows when. The St Kilda locals…
