Zur Klappe

Back in about 2012/13 Sören van Laak broke into this then-defunct subterranean Kreuzberg toilet for a squat party. Five years later, on 13 January 2018, he and business partner Flint Neiber opened the reimagined space as a graffiti-splattered and atmospheric, art-driven bar with music and... toilets. 'Klappe' is German gay-insider speak for 'public toilet suitable for sex', as with 'cottaging' in Britain and 'tearooms' in America — a 20th-century phenomenon now all but flushed into near-oblivion by the shift to online trade (and laws protecting gay sex). This particular East Berlin toilet was noted for its gay (and mostly Turkish) following in the 1980s. Van Laak and Neiber have retained a certain sexual bent here but jacked up the decor to the extreme. It's a quality job, and it's more designer-raw than bourgeois, part-inspired by filth-embracing French photographer-artist Marc Martin. DJs at the weekend. Overall feels far more straight-trendy than gay. And yes, the address is Yorckstraße 0. Thu to Sat from 11pm, but check website to be on the safe side.