Aug 252015
The first time I visited New York City in 1997, I had the time of my life visiting the Hellfire Club, the Vault, the Nutcracker Suite, and other historical landmarks of the kinky side of the city. The second time, in 2005, all of that was gone, leaving only Paddles and a rumoured club in Brooklyn I never got to go to. All thanks to rising rents and the efforts to make Manhattan “family friendly.”
Thankfully, someone is keeping that history alive. I salute photographer Efrain John Gonzalez for starting Hellfire Tours, his guided tour of the bygone world of New York City’s underground of clubs, bars, and houses of domination. If I were there, I’d sign up in a second.
