Inside the extravagant indoor shopping and entertainment area of Clarke Quay, you will find Singapore’s hospital themed bar, The Clinic. It is over 15,000 square feet and is designed with labyrinthine-style, pill-shaped rooms that help give it a “drug” trip effect. The Clinic has two floors and offers fresco bars, lounge rooms, a dance club, and even a merchandise shop for those who want to take home more than a hangover. The decor and the ambiance of the nightclub was designed by architect Damien Hirst (15 of Hirst’s original artwork are displayed throughout the bar) to resemble a medical clinic by introducing syringes, drips, test tubes and other medical paraphernalia. (You drink out of IV bags!)
The Clinic consists of 13 pill-shaped rooms that are all linked to one another. Each room has a different pill “theme” designed to mimic a different drug “side effect.” The entrance to the club is designed like a morgue, and inside, the staff is dressed like orderlies. Colorful pills, syringes, drips, test-tubes, and paraphernalia are everywhere here. For the club’s main space, a 730 square foot, capsule-shaped dance floor called Morphine. (Everything here has a medical sounding name.) The lighting of the club has a trippy side effect. The music and lights of this place feel like they are out of a 1970s disco movie. Austin Powers would call it groovy.
The cocktails are presented in various hospital themed ways — whether it’s in a blood bag attached to a drip that you suck through a straw or test tubes. They are very tasty though. The most fun to be had, however, is with the seats. Instead of a boring old bar stool, you get hospital wheelchairs to whiz around in. It is like a Scrubs episode- just be careful not to knock anything over when you wheelchair race! You can also sit on hospital beds separated by hanging white curtains.
In the inner part of The Clinic is a brand new fine dining area for food lovers. The restaurant, Aurum, seats 60 and is clean and stark like an operating room. No tables. Just chairs. Gold “wheelchairs” at that. Dinner will be a ceremony that is rolled out on steel tables, complete with house-designed tableware. Just like the club, everything in the restaurant is hospital themed.
The Clinic is located in Clarke Quay in downtown Singapore. It’s a pricey establishment but for those looking for something a little different, a little weird, a little off-beat, this place would be a good place to visit the next time you are in Singapore.
Are they always have themed restaurant or bar in that part of the world ? This is so very sickening… I won’t visit it. Looks very interesting though.
Thanks for sharing this. Loll
Looks like fun, especially the Clinic!
This reminds me of the Hospitalis Restaurant in Riga, Latvia where you can have your dinner served on Soviet era operating tables and by nurses dressed in skimpy outfits (not so Soviet).
this one leaves me speechless. fascinating, nonetheless.
anne
We enjoyed this little bar…It was a great way to snap pictures of people staring at us, while enjoying a cocktail through an I.V bag..
We posted about this with a title ” A night at the clinic” which had my mother-in-law in a state of panic for a few seconds..
When we were there in November, they used one of the wheelchairs to transport a theatrically drunk girl from a neighboring bar out to her friend’s car. Apparently this wasn’t the first time they’d had to do something like that. Never a dull moment!
Nice find, Matt. That sounds line unusual place of the year winner.
@audrey: the place in riga sounds interesting.
@tina: I bet it would leave my mother speechless too!
@sonia: putting those wheelchairs to good use! it’s more than a design choice- it’s practical.
lol I would so go there. Very interesting.
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I tried it. The place is fun and makes for a good evening but the food wasn’t so special in my view.
I drank in there last year and didn’t even realise it had an inside?! I just sat outside and bashed into people with a bunch of backpackers. I seem to remember the price of those ‘drips’ being enough to hospitalise even the flashest of backpackers!
That might be the most weird one I’ve ever seen. How the heck did they come up with that idea….? Totally crazy! *giggles*
This is very weird but I can see why people would find it interesting. It’s sure to attract a lot of attention and wouldn’t be a regular boring night out either!
I used to spend many nights having a drink at the tables outside of Highlander, the Scottish pub just in front of The Clinic. My favourite past-time was observing people at the Clinic. Although I was fascinated by the original design I could never decide if I liked the place or not. Then one night I saw a guy passing by, on a wheelchair (for real). From the look in his eyes I made my mind. Fascinating, but I’m happy I never got a drink there. Great post though, definitively starting a good discussion.
Andrea
I love it !
Its so much better then classic sterilized hospital interior / exterior. I bet patients there are feeling much better psychologically then in any other boring hospital
i think its awfully depressing. why would you want to feel like you’re in a hospital??
is there any age requirements in order to dine there?