BOTTOMS Up, Hong Kong's most storied strip club which featured in a James Bond film and was the subject of an indecency crackdown, is to close, a bar insider said today.

 

The seedy bar in the Kowloon tourist district will pull down its shutters for the last time in April, the member of staff said.

 

Bottoms Up opened in May 1971 and quickly established itself at the heart of the city's racy nightlife.

 

In its heyday its clientele included visiting stars like Peter Sellers, George Peppard and Gregory Peck.

 

The bar became an institution after it was featured in the 1974 James Bond flick, "The Man With the Golden Gun". Bond star Roger Moore returned to the bar on subsequent visits to the former British territory.

 

In 1994 it lost a court battle to prevent the government removing its saucy naked-buttocks neon sign as part of an obscenity crackdown. The ruling also forced the naked dancers to cover up with bras or negligees.

 

The staff member wouldn't say why the bar was closing but reports in local media say rising rents had made it impossible to keep going.

Another cultural icon closes, how sad