We arrived at Mass around 11.15pm and luckily did not have to battle the queues to get inside. However, once inside, the queue for the cloakroom began almost immediately. It was going to be a very busy night. Having vested ourselves of our coats, it was time to case the joint and see what was on offer.

New Years Eve has to be one of the biggest nights of the year for partying and TG New Years Eve is no exception to this. After having pigged out over Christmas, everyone is in fine party spirit (a G&T please!) and the place is heaving.

People in wondrous costumes were everywhere, the usual doctors and nurses and uniformed officers, bunny girls and bikini boys and all sorts of freaks and freakesses. This is the place to see and be seen.

In the main room, the dance floor is a mass of movement, bodies gyrating frantically to the banging sounds of top hard dance tunes and smell of warm latex wafting in the air. Obviously these people were keen to get to a flying start shifting those Christmas calories of the hips.

This being New Year’s Eve, the room was awash with colour as the clocks struck midnight, the party poppers exploded and silvery confetti rained down on us, welcoming in another year of fun, fantasy and fetishism.

The second dance room with its eclectic mix of tunes was no less busy. All the seats were taken and the dance area as again packed. The music was pumping out and the tunes were a splendidly unexpected mixture of 80s electronica (sing a long or reminisce if you’re old enough!), a bit of dub, some tunes from the days of “swing” and even a classical masterpiece or two (now, that was unexpected!).

This is the room of the pole dance, and amateur pole dancers abounded - beautiful girls and guys shimming up and down the poles like professionals. As the music would suggest, this room has a burlesque feel and looking around people were certainly dressed the part. This is the place to wear that fabulous hat, and why not team it with as many feathers as possible, some lace, and perhaps a corset and some killer heels? Girl or guy, either way, this outfit works!

In between the two dance rooms I saw a group of ladies that would not have looked out of place at the Court of Louis XIV - the powdered wigs, the pale make-up and ubiquitous beauty marks and the ornate gowns. I wondered briefly if I had turned up at a showing of Dangerous Liaisons as I wandered off.

Down at the very bottom of Mass is the Crypt and what better place for a dungeon than a church crypt? Here the music is more of a soundtrack to the activities going on around, nothing too banging or too fast down here. Take for example, Shirley Bassey belting out “From Russia with Love”; don’t we all love a Bond film over the festive season? Fortunately the dungeon provides ample seating, although on this packed night, even these had queues. Dungeon furniture is also provided and comprises in the main part of various apparatus in which to strap someone securely, perhaps over a bench or stool or upright on the St Andrews X, and then tantalisingly torment that person in a variety of devilishly delightful ways! This was certainly play at its best and everyone had a beaming smile, even when sporting a bright red and stripy bottom!

This was also the location for some great Japanese rope bondage displays, and as this was after all a party, what better way than to use pretty fluorescent coloured ropes with which to suspend someone overhead, leaving them “just hanging around”!

Certainly Torture Garden is the place to be yourself (even that self you don’t know yet). Rejoice in its splendour and join the fantasy. This is a fancy dress dance party for grown up people, with a very special twist!

Thank you Torture Garden for a very splendid year!
©Mistress Eli
Torture Garden