PUMP ROOM ASIA

Pump Room Asia MicroBrewery and Bistro at Clarke, modern Australian cuisine by the Singapore River

The Pump Room
3B River Valley Road,
The Foundry, Clarke Quay
#01-09/10, Singapore 179021

Poole Associates Private Limited and Mason Works Pte Ltd take legal action against The Pump Room Pte Ltd for non payment of design fees and non payment of fitting out works. The Pump Room counters with alleged allegations bringing these suits to The Singapore High Court.

Poole Associates is represented by Drew & Napier LLC

Ed Poole is represented by Straits Law Practice LLC

Mason Works Pte Ltd is represented by Ong Tay + Partners

Interior design of The Pump Room + The Highlander Bar remains copyright Poole Associates Private Limited, we will not hesitate to take legal action if any details what-so-ever are repeated elsewhere.

The Pump Room directors are :

William Graham S2706594E

237 Arcadia Road #05.04 The Arcadia, Singapore 289844

e:mail : lapssg@yahoo.com

Pauline Han Lin Jee S0093249C

237 Arcadia Road #05.04 The Arcadia, Singapore 289844

e:mail : paulineg@quayside-dining.com.sg

Christopher John Martin Shelley S2733171H

10 Dover Rise #20.02 Heritage View Singapore 138680

e:mail : chris@pumproomasia.com

Update : 12.09.07 The Pump Room has been ordered by the Singapore Courts to pay Poole Associates all remaining design fees + interest and legal fees. The Pump Room has appealed.

Update : 14.06.08 The law suits are still not settled. A trial is expected to take place in October 2008. With 4 sets of lawyers involved, legal fees alone are estimated to top $500,000 sgd.

Poole Associates and Mason Works would like to invite the media to this 2 week trial. Watching the Pump Room prove the alleged allegations against Poole Associates, Ed Poole and Mason Works should prove to be very interesting. There will be NO settlement before trial.

"We are prepared" says Ed Poole, "more than $60,000 sgd has been paid thus far to legal counsel, and we are gathering another $100,000 very soon for pre trial preparations".

Contact

November 13, 2007

transsexual author seeks to educate club that asked her to leave

By Sylvia Tan

A well known Singaporean transsexual author and speaker, who was asked to leave a club early Saturday morning, hopes to turn the incident into an opportunity to educate the club’s bouncers and management about gender diversity.

Leona Lo, the author of the first transsexual autobiography to be published in Singapore, was asked to leave a bar known as The Pump Room after being told that it did not welcome “lady boys.”

Leona Lo, author of From Leonard to Leona, the first transsexual autobiography to be published in Singapore.

The author of From Leonard to Leona said she was approached by a bouncer while she was dancing at the Clarke Quay nightspot with her friends early Saturday morning.

In an email to the media over the weekend, Lo said that despite trying to explain that she is a transsexual author raising awareness of transsexual issues in Singapore, the supervisor whom the bouncer summoned reiterated that the club did not welcome "lady boys."

Feeling "enraged at being called a lady boy and being discriminated against," she had refused to show the bouncer her ID although it states female as her gender.

“Sorry, this not my policy, this the bar's policy. Our clients don't like. You not happy please leave.” Lo quoted the supervisor as saying.

When contacted by Fridae, Bill Graham, a director of The Pump Room, said in an email that the club is still “trying to patch together a picture of exactly what happened that night” as their security staff are largely part-timers especially on weekends.

He added that the club has “no policy excluding any groups whatsoever excepting those who are below our recommended age limit, are in breach of our very reasonable dress code, or people who are behaving inappropriately or have done so in the past.”

The British-educated 32-year-old, who runs her own public relations consultancy, told Fridae that she is not "looking for an apology - but the opportunity to conduct an hour-long lecture on gender diversity for the bouncers and their management.”

“In the States, when there are acts of discrimination, people are sometimes sentenced to community service. In this instance, I will undertake the 'community service' myself.”

When asked why she had alerted the media to her experience, she explained: “If this could happen to me, it's probably happening to lots of transsexuals on a regular basis. In the past, transsexuals used to live under the sword of fear, and no one stood up for them.”

“I feel it's my duty to stand up to the bullies - and that's what they are, bullies. Bullies try to strike fear in the hearts of the more socially vulnerable. But in so doing, they also reveal themselves to be cowards.”

“I hope to promote understanding and compassion among Singaporeans for those they perceive to be ‘different.’ I believe in promoting awareness through peaceful methods. Awareness has already been raised in Today and Shin Min (a Chinese-language daily), so I'm happy with this."

Both Lo and the management of the Pump Room have said that they will be in touch to seek a resolution to the matter.

Since 1996, Singapore has recognised the right of transsexuals to marry in their reassigned sex.

A review of From Leonard to Leona will be published later this week, watch out for it!

Related Sites

Leona Lo's blog

Leonalo.com

You are not welcome here, club tells Leona Lo

Phin Wong
phin@mediacorp.com.sg

She has written about life as a transsexual woman and has given talks on transsexual issues. But on early Saturday morning, Ms Leona Lo was asked to leave a Clarke Quay nightspot, apparently for being a "lady boy".

Ms Lo was at The Pump Room with a Singaporean Chinese man and woman and an American Chinese man.

She said in an email to the media: "The bouncer … asked one of my friends if he knew me. My friend replied 'Yes'. Still, the bouncer … asked me to show him my ID. He said the bar did not welcome 'lady boys'."

Ms Lo told Today she refused to show him her identity card because it was unfair that she was "being singled out". Ms Lo and her friends then left the bar.

Her IC states her sex as "female".

A spokesperson for The Pump Room would neither confirm nor deny the incident yesterday, saying there was not enough time to investigate the matter.

Mr William Graham, director of the club, said: "The Pump Room has no general policy to exclude any particular groups other than the age guidelines we publish.

"We do however reserve the right to refuse entry, at our discretion, to any individuals whom we feel are not in adherence to our entry policy.

"For example, if the customer does not adhere to our dress code, is below our age guidelines, or if we feel they might create a disturbance or misbehave in the establishment based on prior experience, we might not welcome them."

According to the bar's staff, the age limit is 21 for women and 23 for men on Fridays and Saturdays, and 18 for everyone on other days. The dress code bars sandals, slippers, shorts and sleeveless shirts.

Ms Lo, 32, said she was wearing a "typical silver dress".

"I've been there before. The band has even sung 'Happy Birthday' to me," she said.

In her email, she added: "Ironically, Pump Room's anchor band is Jive Talking, which features a transgender lead singer."

Ms Lo recently launched From Leonard To Leona, a book chronicling her experience as a post-operation transsexual. She underwent sex assignment surgery in 1997 in Thailand.