Nightclub Entrance

The nightclub entrance at the Bankstown RSL is a recessed doorway set off the main corridor at the front of the building. A pair of double doors clad in padded black vinyl with brass-button trim opens into the matte-black room beyond. Above the doors, a backlit signage panel reads NIGHTCLUB in cursive script, the neon tubes inside dead at the time of the photograph. A velvet rope on chrome stands sits to one side of the door, marking the queue position from busier nights. The corridor leading up to the entrance is carpeted in the heavy commercial pattern used through the rest of the front-of-house. Lighting along the approach is dimmer than the main foyer, getting the eye ready for the room inside.

Nightclub entrances at suburban clubs of this era were dressed up to mark the transition from the rest of the venue. The padded-vinyl doors, the brass studs, the backlit signage, and the queue rope were all the kit of a 1970s or 1980s discotheque tradition that carried through into the 1990s and 2000s on a smaller scale at clubs like Bankstown. The nightclub at the Bankstown RSL ran from this entrance through to the matte-black room with the sprung dance floor inside. The Bankstown RSL was demolished in March 2019. The entrance, the signage, and the padded doors all went down with the rest of the front-of-house fit-out.