A couple of general observations first… In the three years or so since I was last in Prague there seem to have been a couple of significant changes. On what will be a positive note for many of us, a smoking ban was introduced in the Czech Republic in 2017. You will now, therefore, find that bars are smoke-free, with customers (and boys!) exiting frequently to smoke on the pavement outside [a usefully resulting benefit is that, whereas previously many boys might stayed slumped over their mobile phone screens at the bar for hours on end, you now get the chance to catch their eye as they pass by – and that constant to-ing and fro-ing also allows them to spot that there are some potential clients in the place who might be worth approaching]. Incidentally, as a result of the ban, I note that Villa Mansland – which had originally, under its post-Harry ownership, repositioned itself as some sort of smokers’ club now offers merely a designated smoking area.
One more negative change – although it may just be my own back luck – is that crime in Prague seems to have increased. Not only was I was jostled (unsuccessfully) in the street by the very same female pickpocket on two successive nights but my luggage was rifled through in the hotel’s luggage store (the wallet that they took was, thankfully, completely empty).
Better news emerges, though, with regard to Prague’s famous boys. Although I didn’t even bother checking that Escape is closed (everyone online says it is) and I didn’t get out to Ladvi to check out Villa Mansland (when I did that three years ago, the staff were completely indifferent and the boys non-existent), I did visit the old Monty’s and Club Temple every day. Those two are now marketed under the joint name “Up & Down”, with Monty’s up the hill being “Up” and the semi-subterranean old Club Temple now “Down”. I guess that, on the same logic, they might have been rechristened “Top & Bottom” – but maybe that was thought to be a step too far…
Up/Monty’s looks like it has had some money spent on a much-needed refurbishment. As you enter, the first things you notice are that the old floor has been replaced with a bright-coloured parquet design and that the old staircase up to the mezzanine above the bar has been taken out. The bar itself remains in the same position as before. There are new tables and chairs which, because the available space has been slightly increased, are now a bit further apart and so offer slightly more privacy for conversation. The overall effect is to have created a much brighter, bigger-looking and neater area. If it had been up to me, I’d have knocked down the wall between the small bar and the larger lounge area off it, but perhaps it serves a structural purpose and can’t be moved – in any case it is still there and, annoyingly, continues to prevent customers being able to see all the boys in the place at a single glance. Although I didn’t sit in the larger lounge area itself, it looked pretty comfortable and more welcoming that before: a very large TV screen at the far end seems to show soccer around the clock. The toilets are in the same location as before but are in a decidedly cleaner state. Drinks, by the way, are still among the cheapest I found anywhere in Prague: the beer on offer now is Konrad – it doesn’t have the strongly hoppy taste of some of the other Czech beers but is perfectly drinkable.
Opening times at Up are somewhat mystifying. The usual opening time is supposedly 2 pm and closing at 9 pm. A ticker-tape electric sign suggests however, that, in response to customer feedback, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays the opening times are 11 am – 6 am (i.e. a 19-hour day). But when, on one of those days, I did arrive there at 10 pm, planning to have a drink before heading to Down, I found the place closed – so maybe those 19 hours are an idealised aspiration rather than a real commitment. Over five days in Prague, I visited Up every afternoon and spent an hour or two there. There were always at least two or three rent boys there, none of them unattractive, while on Saturday and Sunday it was more like half a dozen. On the basis of my few days of survey, I’d say that on weekdays the boys are outnumbered by customers (though not all of the latter gave the impression that they were in buying mode) while at weekends the reverse seemed to be true. One odd thing: on a couple of my visits there were a few girl customers in Up – not something that I’d ever noticed in its old Monty’s incarnation.
Moving on to Down, my usual time to arrive at was somewhere between 10 pm and 11 pm. The main bar area hasn’t changed much, I’d say, from Club Temple days – though maybe a bit of the old “Aztec” décor has gone? The big thing that you may notice, though, is that the large TV screens that always used to be showing Bel Ami movies and suchlike have been removed. Personally, I’d miss those if it were a quiet night when there might not be much else in the bar to look at. While I can’t put my foot on any precise change, the “show” area at the far end of the bar seems to have been neatened up a bit and no longer resembles a place to put old bits of junk. The toilet has certainly been cleaned up, with, I think, brighter lighting and new sanitary ware. On the Friday and Saturday nights of my visit, there was “entertainment” in Down. The DJ announced at 11 pm that it would be happening in 10 minutes; at 11.15 that it would be starting in 5 minutes; and at 11.30 that it would begin in 10 minutes. At 11.40 pm (both nights) a stripper appeared and did a 5 minutes routine, stripping from street clothes to complete nudity (not just a quick Full Monty flash but maintained for about a minute under full lighting while he danced around). On both nights it was the same guy (“Antoine”, a well-endowed blond in, I’d say, his early 20s) so maybe recruiting guys is proving harder than it was in the past (it used to be claimed that, in exchange for allowing the boys to ply their trade in the old Club Temple, the management forced them to agree to join the stripping rota – but I cannot confirm that). At the end of his routine, Antoine, still fully naked, passed around the bar collecting tips (and gropes) from patrons – and then, having got dressed, sat with his biggest admirers/donors whom he’d no doubt identified as the night’s best prospects.
As with Up – and as with Club Temple in the past – there are fewer boys in Down during the weekday evenings (maybe 6 or 8 when I was there?) and more at weekends (maybe 12 – 15?). They are a pretty goodlooking bunch (though including, I’m afraid, the usual one or two who appear to be slightly spaced out on drugs) but they don’t seem to approach potential clients proactively as much as in the past. That was such a consistent pattern of (non)behaviour that I’d be tempted to speculate that it derives from instructions from the new management: maybe, as with the removal of the porno TVs, there’s an attempt to downplay the overtly sexual and sex-for-sale elements – but how, in that case, ought we to account for Antoine’s prolonged, rather than flash-in-the-pan, nudity?
By the way, one thing that I did notice in both Up and Down is that the staff are more polite and less standoffish than in the old days. They come more regularly to tables to solicit orders and are much friendlier than before. Down’s payment system (the constantly updated paper tab that you redeem on exiting) is unchanged. The large lesbian taxi driver is no longer a permanent feature, but perhaps she can be summoned on demand.
In conclusion: if you were familiar with Club Temple and Monty’s, you won’t notice too many changes in Up & Down. Some money has clearly been spent on both bars to enhance customers’ comfort and, while there may be slightly fewer boys around you will more than likely find one you like. I suspect that, just as we often observe in Thailand, boys are more and more marketing themselves online and so, sadly, fewer of them appear at the bars for our inspection than in the old days. Even if you’ve had a non-productive time at Up & Down, however, you’ll be pleased to hear that, as you make your way home, you’ll still find a potential new friend (or two or three) on the path and grounds outside the main railway station - though that's another story and is best left to itself ;-)
And finally, as requested (and with apologies to anyone offended by the antedeluvian use of a derogatory synonym for "gay": my only excuse is that it was necessary for the rhyme...)
A Czech boy who was new to the town
Viewed Prague's prices with hardly a frown
For he'd heard that his rent
Would be paid by the bent
Patrons of the boy bars Up & Down
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