In comparison to cities like Manchester and London, Newcastle’s gay scene has got quite a way to go, but over recent years a throng of gay and gay-friendly bars and clubs has sprung up around the city’s Times Square area. If you’re in the mood for it, you can simply stagger from pub to bar and straight to club and on an average night out, the chances probably are that you’ll find yourself in Powerhouse.

To your left as you come into the club is a walkway that leads down a small incline before you end up on the dance floor. The dance floor accommodates one big area, with a small stage and a podium or two, as well as various drinking corners arranged around the enormous pillars holding the place up. Strangely enough, the dance floor somehow manages to make itself fairly private and if you’re having a drink up the other end, you are shielded from all the groovy action. There are a couple of seating areas at the back of the dance floor, complete with comfy sofas, which are equally popular with snoggers and bystanders. The lighting for the whole area is subdued, rather than completely dark, but it’s not a good place to be if the venue isn’t that busy. Just by walking across the dance floor you get the feeling that everybody is watching you and I only really enjoy it here if it’s too busy to breathe.

Directly in front of the snogging booths are the main toilets. I’ve not had need to go into the ladies (unlike a friend of mine who ended up pulling someone’s knickers down for her last night because she was too drunk to do it herself) but the gents are clean enough, at the start of the night anyway. The wash basin will be enough to confuse all but the most intelligent out there, comprising as it does a big round basin with a pedal at the bottom to activate the jets of water. Next to the toilets is a staircase, which leads upstairs to a second bar and dance floor. On busy nights, this part is opened up to allow direct access from the bar next door (Zinc). I can’t comment in great detail on this, as I never seem to make it upstairs, finding plenty to occupy me on the ground floor.

But enough of the staff, what about the clientele? Well, Powerhouse seems to attract a fairly wide cross-section of different people, although gay men fundamentally populate it. All the girlies like a night out with their GBFs, so of an average Friday or Saturday night, there will be plenty of girls and boys getting up to all sorts of mischief. Unlike more mixed clubs, you don’t get so many straight people in here, but you can still spot the odd straight man, dragged in against his will by some outrageous friend or colleague. The atmosphere is always pretty jolly and flirty too – the set up of the club is obviously pandering to the rather predatory nature of some of the inmates! Powerhouse is a really good place to come for a laugh though and I think that most people who enjoy a good old-fashioned night out would enjoy it here.