| 7.BiJohn |
28.08.08 - 21:14 Uhr |
I used to frequent the Boilerhouse often for its good vfm - a reasonable crowd of willing, able and randy guys ranging in age from late teens/early twenties up to mid 50s - 60s - something for everyone and everyone there for m2m fun. It used to be clean, orderly and the staff friendly. In the afternoons and early (til 8 pm or so)evenings one was always guaranteed a number of hook-ups with guys who, like me, wanted man-fun, in two- or more-somes. Rubbers and lube were always available in the lockers and usually in the cabins too.
My attendance dropped off as I was working abroad, but when at home I would always try to visit and have slowly become totally disillusioned with the place.
The price has rocketed from €12 to €20. New staff are indifferent to the point of rudeness. The anal douches have been removed - staff told me it was because they had been repeatedly wrecked by the clients and management couldn't be bothered any more to replace them. You might get a rubber & lube in your locker now, you might not. If you appear to be one of the favoured few, you'll get a "good" locker, in a corner, near a seat; if you're not, you'll have to dress & undress almost in the hallway. Chipped tiles, scummy floors, the lock on the WC missing, a constant smell of "stale body" pervades the place and there's an air of neglect.
The crowd seems to have changed too. Opinionated teenagers/early 20s now almost sneer at the older guys; being repeatedly groped on the stairs by the same 2 or 3 guys who can't recognise NO for what it is; being followed around and pestered by guys I wouldn't want to have fun with - nobody else seemed to want to either; posers parading but doing nothing; guys lying in booths watching the only (few) working TVs, door open, stroking themselves, but refusing maybe 10-12 offers in as many minutes - they won't perform but they won't move on either; guys arguing so loudly in the booths that we all could hear what was going on over the sound of the music; aggression; broken TVs in the booths; on one occasion I saw a smallish guy have his towel stripped from him by 2 much bigger brutes and while one of them held him, the other tried to bareback him - all this while the little guy was watching a blue movie in the open TV area upstairs (I don't think this was a rape fantasy type thing - the little guy left in tears)!!!
The Boilerhouse was, briefly and after the Gym closed down, the premier gay sauna in Dublin. It has been slipping for quite some time. It now needs a client and facility make-over - badly and urgently. But as it seems to be the only gay sauna in the city, there's little incentive for management to do anything, just sit and let the cash roll in. I had heard there was a new one opening somewhere around Grafton St or Andrew St - anyone know of it? It would make a pleasant change from the Boilerhouse - a true example of rip-off Ireland.
Go 100 miles up the road to Outside in Belfast for an altogether more satisfying and better value encounter.
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