Australia’s most famous brothel, Sydney’s A Touch Of Class, is being lavishly restored and promoting its imminent reopening with a cheeky advertising campaign.
‘Recognise the name? Ask your dad or your dad’s dad,’ a newspaper advertisement for the house of ill repute states.
A Touch Of Class – or ‘the Toucha’ – in inner-city Surry Hills has been providing sexual services to Sydneysiders and travelers from around the world for almost 50 years.
The massage parlour has previously been described as the ‘most controversial piece of real estate in Sydney’ and more crudely as ‘a clutch of tarts’.
For decades it was a place a certain type of father took their sons to lose their virginity.
The wrought iron privacy screens at the front of A Touch of Class are pictured here in 1985
A Touch of Class is set to reopen in June and has begun advertising with a cheeky campaign
The new owners of A Touch of Class have spent almost $8m buying four buildings and a block
Among the Toucha’s clients have been some of the country’s best-known figures from business, entertainment and sport, as well as generations of sailors from visiting warships.
The late billionaire Kerry Packer was among those rumoured to have a financial interest in the place, the ownership of which was unclear for many years.
An unverified story in Paul Barry’s biography of Packer has him once hiring the entire venue so his polo-playing friends could be entertained by ‘some good, clean girls’.
Another piece of folklore has a prominent Sydney horse trainer shouting all his male staff to a session at the Toucha after he won the Golden Slipper.
Former police recruit and prostitute Kim Hollingsworth, whose story featured in the television series Underbelly: The Golden Mile, was among those to take escort bookings from the brothel.
Scenes from the 2006 Australian film Candy starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish were shot in the bordello.
Onetime NSW police recruit and prostitute Kim Hollingsworth worked for A Touch of Class
The revamped A Touch of Class is hiring prostitutes and taking bookings ahead of its opening
A Touch of Class is boarded up for now but its owners boast it will be like a ‘six star hotel’
A Touch Of Class opened at 377 Riley Street in 1972 and grew to fill three Victorian terraces which stand opposite the Forresters Hotel.
The business was so notorious it was the subject of a 1987 book.
Memories of A Touch of Class, detailing ‘life in Australia’s best-known bordello’, was written by its late madam Zara Powell with journalist Ros Reines.
Kerry Packer was said to have once hired A Touch of Class for his polo-playing pals
Powell did not like to call A Touch of Class a brothel, referred to herself as ‘general manager’ and described the prostitutes who worked for her as ‘entertainers’.
‘The wrought iron gates are the best-known in Sydney,’ Powell and Reines wrote. ‘Taxis screech to a halt in front of them, passersby crane their necks to see around them and clients disappear through them in the bat of a powdered eyelid.
‘The three terrace houses behind them sit side by side, like the three wise monkeys hearing nothing, seeing nothing and, above all, saying nothing. Ever.
‘A Touch of Class is as private as a priest’s confessional, and it is just as hard to look inside.’
For some years a truck was parked illegally out the front to discourage prying eyes. The truck, which amassed a staggering number of parking tickets, was replaced by a high wooden fence that council also deemed illegal.
Dark green wrought iron screens have served the same purpose of providing some privacy for more than 30 years. Brothels were not legalised in NSW until the Disorderly Houses Amendment Act of 1995.
Australia’s most famous brothel A Touch of Class in Riley Street, Surry Hills, as it was in 1982
Brothel madam Zara Powell and journalist Ros Reines wrote a book about A Touch of Class
Brothel madam Zara Powell who called herself the ‘general manager’ of A Touch of Class
‘Over the years, many have passed through those gates,’ Powell and Reines wrote.
‘Some have been famous, others not quite so well-known. But they have all been enticed there by the promise of pleasure – a promise which the entertainers at A Touch of Class are more than adequately capable of keeping.’
‘Legend also surrounds this place – the speculation as to who owns it has been endless; ever since the bordello opened in 1972.
‘It remains the most controversial piece of real estate in Sydney, but once inside, the outside world is forgotten.’
The book reveals none of the Toucha’s greatest secrets: the famous names who visited or how often they went there. For years a visit to the brothel would appear on credit card statements as ‘Staff Call’.
One prostitute told the authors of a New South Wales politician who would always arrive with a shopping bag containing one item: a wind-up alarm clock.
After she made him a pot of tea and toasted sandwiches, the pair would go to bed and sleep until the alarm woke them after three hours. They rarely had sex.
Sydney’s famous A Touch of Class brothel now occupies 371 to 379 Riley Street in Surry Hills
Kim Hollingsworth did escort work through A Touch of Class before joining the NSW police
A discrete side entrance allows access to A Touch of Class from Foveaux Street in Surry Hills
The authors detailed how prostitutes would deal with virgin clients.
‘Extra special care must be taken when boys come in – often sent there by their fathers – for their “first time”. They can either have the best or worst time of their lives.’
Powell and Reines describe a typical night when ‘members of a European soccer team and a man reputed to be one of the richest and most powerful in Asia’ are among those in the three reception rooms.
‘Downstairs, in one of the spa rooms, a media personality is relaxing with the woman he sees regularly every two weeks.’
At that time, A Touch of Class featured attractions including the Hollywood Room, Chinese Room, Arabian Room, Garden Room, Edwardian Room, Disco Room, Pleasure Spa and Space Bar.
The revamped venue, which appears to be expanding, is set to reopen in June as a ‘6 Star ultra modern luxury designer high class boutique brothel like you have never ever seen before.’
The revamped A Touch of Class will have its own carpark in Little Riley Street, Surry Hills
Building works are ongoing at what will supposedly be Australia’s most lavish brothel
The three terraces that once made up A Touch of Class as well as two adjacent blocks – one of which is just a facade – were sold to the one buyer for $7,900,000 in February last year.
While the brothel is still a building site, its website is spruiking its resurrection and boasting of its past glories as ‘a Sydney landmark… famous all around the world.’
It is already inviting bookings and prices start at $220 for half an hour.
‘Our client list consists of reputable doctors, lawyers, politicians, celebrities and other wealthy clientele,’ the business promises prospective prostitutes.
‘We were the pioneers, and though many have followed in our footsteps, no other Sydney brothel managed to reach our high-class level of sophistication and service.’
‘This accolade of comparison is not limited solely against other adult establishments, but includes everything from brothels to hotels worldwide.’
The website boasts of the brothel’s discrete side entrance on Foveaux Street and its own carpark around the back in Little Riley Street.
Business leaders, politicians and entertainment figures have walked through these gates
All rooms will have large en suite bathrooms, rainfall LED showers, water jet spas, flat screen televisions, in-house adult movies and in-built bars.
The latest incarnation of A Touch of Class follows a decade of turbulent times.
The brothel closed in late 2007 and was put up for sale the following year but was taken off the market when bidding did not reaching the asking price.
At the time, manager Peter Lazaris blamed its demise in part on cheaper, unauthorised sex venues nearby.
The bordello rose again as Misty’s, run by madam Suzelle Antic, until she moved her girls to Newtown in September 2016.
Ms Antic told the Herald: ‘We could get 200 jobs a night through the place, I’d say it was the busiest brothel in the city.’
‘The business was good, very good, but I think the landlord had different plans.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the new owners for comment.
A Touch of Class is on the busy corner of Riley and Foveaux Streets in Sydney’s Surry Hills