Torture Garden

Listen out slaves. On the morning of Torture Garden - even the name makes me feel funny - I try on the cat suit for the first time this week meow.

Torture Garden (abbreviated as TG) is a fetish club in London England. The club started in 1990 and is now Europe's largest fetish club. It features dance floors, musical acts, performance art, fashion shows, and a BDSM dungeon.

Initially threatened with closure by the police, it is now described as "legendary" and "a capital institution" by TIME OUT magazine. It has also been described as "a combination of a fetish, S/M, body art, Modern Primitives, straight, gay, performance art, body ritual, fashion, techno/industrial/atmospheric music, multimedia, and cyberspace club".

Atmosphere

The co-founder of TG described the experience as "like entering a scene from a movie", and said that "we are basically about the celebration of sexuality and fantasy in a safe environment". A lack of intimidating or threatening behaviour is characteristic of the club, in contrast to most nightclubs. One journalist reported the "welcoming, liberating, anything-goes atmosphere".

There is a strict dress code: "Fantasy Fetish, SM, Body Art, Drag, Rubber, Leather, PVC goes, but no cotton t-shirts, street wear, or regular club wear". This has been summarised as "if what you’re wearing wouldn’t get you stared at in the street, don’t bother even queuing up to get in".

TG has hosted club nights in several other cities and countries, including Edinburgh Russia, Greece and Japan, and it also runs a Fetish label I would love to see that.

Mistress K: My kind of place.