FIST – and the Queen of Kink
Tinworth Street arches · the mother of all fetish clubs
Under the railway arches at 101 Tinworth Street stood the Chunnel Club, and in February 1994 it became the birthplace of FIST – the pioneering hardcore fetish club that set the template for every one that followed. A strict leather, rubber and skin dress code; performances from extreme artists like Ron Athey and Franko B; a room that broke boundaries and made clubbing hard, sexy and dirty. Over nine years and more than a hundred parties it moved around south London before the police finally closed it in December 2002.
And running it all was Suzie Krueger – reputedly a lesbian who had trained as a lawyer, and the unlikely, undisputed doyenne of London’s gay male fetish scene for decades. From FIST she went on to Hard On in 2003, still running today. A woman built and ruled the most extreme corner of gay men’s nightlife, and did it with total authority.