Goldfingers inferno may have destroyed VIP book
The Goldfingers inferno may have forever deleted the secret strip club lives of Melbourne’s movers and shakers, including politicians, senior police and sports stars.
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The Goldfingers inferno may have forever deleted the secret strip club lives of influential and famous Melbourne figures.
A book containing some of the city’s biggest names was kept for many years by the venue’s former operator, Ray Bartlett, known to some as the Lord of the Lapdance.
Those with their names written in its leather-bound pages were allowed priority entry and other perks once inside the King St business.
Politicians, senior police and legal bigwigs were among those listed to be given the VIP treatment.
The Herald Sun has been told the red carpet was also rolled out for media high-flyers, top sportsmen and business and community leaders.
“It was like a who’s who,” said one man familiar with the book’s contents.
It is not clear whether the book was still in the club at the time of the fire but, if it was, the blaze would most likely have reduced it to ashes.
Mr Bartlett died in 2013 and the venue has not operated since 2020.
He had for decades been friends with a bevy of Melbourne movers and shakers who found their way into his VIP pages.
Fire tore through Goldfingers in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the intensity of the flames pumping black smoke into the sky and shattering windows.
Fifty firefighters worked to save the facade of the more than 100-year-old Kilkenny Inn, but the building was largely gutted.
A witness has described seeing a person throwing fiery objects from the ex-Goldfingers site moments before it went up in flames.
The strip club spanned three buildings, with demolition crews tearing down the facade of the middle premises – next to the Kilkenny Inn – on Wednesday.
Authorities will not be able to move in to determine if anyone perished in the blaze before the demolition is complete and the building is declared safe.
While three people were registered as squatters at the site, authorities have not been able to predict how many people may have been inside when the flames took hold.
It is not yet known what sparked the blaze but authorities are treating it as suspicious.
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