bloodhouse

plural bloodhouses

1. A building where violent, bloody brawls are common.

   There are still a few bloodhouses, as the rowdier institutions are called, patronized exclusively by men;

   1985, Tony Allan, editor, Australia, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 131

   5 more examples

   ‘[…]Not,’ she elaborated with ponderous wistfulness, ‘that I don’t enjoy an occasional slumming expedition to the bloodhouses. Graham won’t use a bar that isn’t full of men in grubby singlets;[…]’

   1961, George Turner, A Stranger and Afraid, London: Cassell, page 40

   From the bloodhouses of my youth, vagrant hotels, I see your face / Dead girl (dear Jan!) in smoke-filled rooms—glass-littered slimy floors.

   1972, Geoffrey Lehmann, Conversation with a Rider, Angus and Robertson, →ISBN, page 43

   The old riverfront where steamers used to move passengers and cargo is graced by pubs with lacy verandas that look old, quiet and innocent to the passer-by but still bear a reputation as ‘bloodhouses’ where more than one drug haul has come in up the river from the east.

   1988, Nick Lush, Australia, →ISBN, page 203

   The conditions and service offered varied: some were ‘bloodhouses’; others, such as that at Parramatta owned by James Larra, provided fine food, good drink and warm hospitality to their customers.

   1990, Douglass Baglin, Yvonne Austin, The Great Aussie Pub Crawl, Child & Associates, →ISBN, page 19

   […]negative environmental factors that make some establishments bloodhouses year after year and many more establishments violent on a less predictable basis.

   1992, Journal of Drug Issues, page 682