City: Sydney

Sydney / Newtown, Enmore & Erskineville / The Imperial Erskineville

LGBTQIA+ club & pub

The Imperial Erskineville

Home of Heaps Gay and Honcho Disko nights. Reopened after a major renovation.

The Imperial on Erskineville Road, December 2021
Photo: The Imperial on Erskineville Road, December 2021 · Nick-D · CC BY-SA 4.0

About The Imperial Erskineville

The Imperial is a long-running LGBTQIA+ pub that became a gay venue in the 1980s under Dawn O'Donnell and appeared in the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It was revamped in 2018 and relaunched again in late 2023 after Universal Hotels bought it.

The three-level venue has a ground-floor Main Bar for drag and dining, a rooftop with pizza from Pizza Bros, and The Basement, an underground club for DJs, live performance and promoter parties. Weekly fixtures include Wednesday trivia, Thursday Drag Bingo, The Priscilla Experience shows on Saturdays and Late Night Disco with drag and DJs on Fridays and Saturdays.

Written by LateOne.au, checked 13 October 2026. Sources: imperialerskineville.com.au, timeout.com, sydney.com, gaysydneynews.com.au. Hours and door policies change, so check with the venue.

Area
Newtown, Enmore & Erskineville
Music
Basement parties with queer DJs; nightly drag; pop in the front room
Best nights
Friday and Saturday
Address
35 Erskineville Road, Erskineville NSW 2043
Main Bar hours
Wed–Thu 4pm–12am, Fri 4pm–3am, Sat 4pm–4am
Rooms
Main Bar, Rooftop, The Basement
Late Night Disco
Fri and Sat from 9pm
Official site & what’s on ↗Getting home

Check the venue’s own listings for tonight’s program, hours and door policy.

Map & Street View

Pin from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Street View opens the nearest street photo; entrances can be round the corner, so check the venue’s own directions.

Around The Imperial Erskineville

Nothing else we list is within a ten-minute walk. The nearest is CULT, about 2 km away, so plan a ride.

Walking times are estimates from the map, not routes.

More in Newtown, Enmore & Erskineville

Checked 13 October 2026 against Destination NSW, venue sites and Transport for NSW. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.