Phil and August have been involved in the Bay Area BDSM community for many years. We were Officers in The Society of Janus as well as regular attendees of private and public BDSM events. In 1993, we started Fandango, which was an open play party following Lady Thorns “SM Community Exchange” held three times a year.  There were a couple of years San Francisco’s dungeons had closed, We had the desire to bring Fandango back to San Francisco and keep it there, which meant finding a permanent location to host in. One day, a good friend of ours enlightened us on a building someone she knew had moved out of and might be interested in letting us use for Fandango.

The location: 245 8th Street.

During that time, Phil came up with an interesting idea “Why not open a permanent community dungeon in SF!” I must admit, I wasn’t exactly too thrilled about the whole concept and kind of dragged my feet on it all, but then eventually gave in, suggesting that we gave it more of an “at-home” feel. Am I ever glad I did—what a unique experience this has turned out to be!

Peter Acworth, who owns Hogtied, owned the building and had just moved into another space on 5th and Mission St. He was willing to lease the 8th Street location to us and helped us get started. Originally The SF Citadel was a 3-person business partnership, one of the business partners eventually left.

A handful of volunteers donated countless hours and valuable trade skills to help get things together, and various community organizations even donated personal equipment from their home dungeons to us until we were able to build our own. SM Odyssey loaned us their stored equipment for the first three months of our operation. We can’t thank them enough. Daddy Harry, a licensed contractor dove in head first with his skills and his energy. Others jumped in to make sure we would be ready for our opening night Fandango party.

On December 14, 2003 the SF Citadel officially opened its doors. Things took off very quickly—the concept was a success and we had lots of support from many different groups within the community; coming out every weekend to socialize, play, educate, learn and to just feel good with having a place to call their own, a place where they could be who they wanted to be without judgment.

However, Phil and I soon had a major dilemma on our hands…the building was being sold, and we needed to find a new location quickly---we had only 6 MONTHS to do this! Talk about being under pressure! Exactly 2 weeks before the lease was up---and exactly 2 weeks before Folsom Street Fair 2005, we were blessed with finding our present location at 1277 Mission Street. It was a very emotional time, because there were—and still are--lots of fond memories of the old space where it all began. But with work parties of 20-30 persons working tirelessly, the transition from a vacant building to a fully functioning dungeon went rather smoothly as we moved into our new space and once again opened the doors to everyone.

Today’s SF Citadel plays a major role in the SF Bay Area BDSM community, as we are now world-renowned for our high-energy parties and themed events, and for our informative workshops featuring many prominent instructors.

Our loyal volunteer staff goes above and beyond the call of duty to help keep things running day after day—we can’t possibly thank them enough! New faces are around almost weekly—a sign that our community is ever changing and forever growing. But the vision to create not just a dungeon, but also a community home for one and all is still there, and will continue to exist as long as wonderful people like each of you continues to grace our doors!

Thank you for all of your support!

Phil Derby and August Knight, Owners
SF Citadel