The Anvil was a gay BDSM after-hours sex club located at 500 West 14th Street, Manhattan, New York City, that operated from 1974 to 1985.

[1] The club was housed in a building originally constructed in 1908, then known as "The Strand Hotel" with a saloon on the ground floor, that catered to sailors[note 1] and accepted only men as customers.

"[1] Lou Reed was occasionally one of the many famous patrons inside[5] and Freddie Mercury frequented the club when he lived in New York City from 1980 to 1982.

[7] The Anvil "quietly shut its doors" in 1985 [8] following the closure of the Mineshaft by the city authorities amidst the AIDS scare.

There are tours taking visiting tourists to the building that used to house The Anvil and to other infamous places that mark New York's sexual history.