SO EXCITED TO START AGAIN
It is almost like the first days at Hamilton Hall when unsure what the future was to offer as a new venue - hoping, fingers crossed that you have not made the worst decision of your life.
I ran a very popular gay mens Escort Aency in Londoin and was also a sex worker - a VERY popular and one of the top gay sex workers in the UK - ( with a background in Psychology, Bereavement Councelling, Hospitality and Interior Design ) after 15 years, I decided to sell up and change my entire lifestyle and open a gay mens spiritual venue, and it was all a huge risk. It could well have gone belly up as gay men didn't attend.
Clearly as many will guess, I was never just a sex worker. Those that assume - say - a hairdresser is all that person will ever be - is a hairdresser - is dumb.
Anyone that assumes a Cabin Crew is and always will be - Cabin Crew, is dumb.
We are all so much more than our jobs and we are all so much more - PERIOD.
I sat and considered for months before putting my London house on the market ? I thought about what I would offer if I had bought a hotel and what it would be like ?
It was a long and difficult journey from selling my London house - staying with family - using estate agents ( where every single estate agent I have ever done business with - and I have bought and sold a few properties in my time - have been dishonest, full of bullshit that was as clear as glass, bullies, incompetant and down right illegal practices ) and eventually with great trepidation, 21 years ago last March, I opened Hamilton Hall after 4 months of builders, plumbers, electricians - and completely re
novating Hamilton Hall to bring it how I wanted it - and after we opened I over advertised - and I ran out of money fast - and relied heavily on cedit cards - and scared that I had made the worst mistake of my life - as I had given up everyting I knew - home - business - friends - various voluntary groups I ran or was on committees of - all to given up on - to take a risk - do something new and exciting, and as I have always felt guided by some higher power - as I knew that this was the correct forward journey - not just for me, but for a community in need of some soul - it started slow and it built up over the next few years - and was the Massage and the Tantric Sex workshops I offered that put us on the map and saved us from financial ruin in those first few years.
It seems I have more knowledge, more experience and more 'hand on experience' of Tantric Sex that anyone in the UK at the time teaching / sharing their knowledge, and we became the number one place in the UK to learn Tantric Sex for men. Plus, other groups that appeared over the years did not have their own venue and did not re invest and Hamilton hall is the only such venue in Europe . After a decade the TV programme on Channel 4 - ' 3 IN A BED' put us truly on the map with millions of people watching the programme and we received around 10,000 e mails after that - mostly from the straight world and all full of praise for what we offer as a NOT FOR PROFIT VENUE and where we put something back into a community full of people who take take take and never even think - not for a moment - about putting somethign back, and this thoughtless take take take attitude is killing the gay scene as vacuous - shallow - empty of any serious thought or concern for anything but self, and that is where Hamilton Hall meets some head on - where we sometimes butt heads - as some hate it when faced with a challenge to their selfish manner and will try and fight against change when change is the only way forward - yet some still resist.
Now we are almost an institution as most of the other gay hotels have closed and mostly LGBTQ hotels remain - a few of them - but very few men only venues remain - and many of them are either tacky venues or not a hotel but a house with a couple of spare rooms - and this does not offer protection like insurance, fire and safety, food hygiene or anything a registered hotel has to offer.
and it is a risk these days. Few want to work as hard - Few want to be ionvolved with the gay scene and few can afford to financially, so those of us who do, and offer the gay scene a place of beauty, do so as a calling - with passion and from the heart. Giving to others is in my heart and sharing the beauty of mybhome with others is a joy.
Being closed for the last year - basically 6 months in 2021 in 2 sepersate periods;- and a couple of weeks shy of 6 months closed in 2021- it has been an interesting period.
Everyone has a story to tell of the last year. Everyone has some heartache in there. Everyone has laughter and tears. No story is more important than anyone elses a we are all in this together and in the UK we are very lucky to have had out jabs and where over 50% have also received their jabs compared to the mess in Europe, and this gives me a thought that - maybe - it was best we did come out of the EU when we did or we would be stuck with less that 10% of the population vaccinated like most of Europe and fighting to get the medications needed, just as the EU has screwed it up badly. But a date hads been set,.
May 17th 2021 to re open.
NBopris has said his piece and the country - the industry up and down the country are redecorating, preparing, making changes, re organizing, changing techniques and seting up new ways of dping things so that when we, and all hotels and restaurants re open, we are ready and prepared.
Our Diaru of Events is out there - on th web site HERE and booking are coming in thick and fast.
Pewrsonally, I am looking forward to welcoming old and new faces here and I do know my dog Honey remembers a liot of our reguars and we are all looking forward to seeing you all again.
Here's looking forward to a great summer ahead and where this can find a solution and the world can start to heal and humankind, grow and adapt and move on - together - united.
John Bellamy -------------------------------------------------------------------
This old picture of Hamilton Hall is wonderful. When you come here you can see the change done to this magnificent building to bring it into the 21st century. i wonder what the owners - back then - would think of the place becoming anake dhotel for gay men.... as I know the house itself LOVES US HERE as the energies are wonderful.
