Wild west meets 1920s Pigalle bar

If the walls could talk, then 15 Caxton Street would resonate with a cacophony of voices, from the serious timbre of the Oddfellows Society, advising the working-class population of its legal rights, to the honeyed come-hither call of a scantily clad "exotic dancer".

Baroona Hall is its original name, it's most recent incarnation is The Velvet Cigar, and from next month, it will ring again with happy voices as it re-opens as Lefty's Old Time Music Hall.

The bar, which will feature live music, is the newest baby of Jamie Webb, who also owns Peasant and Cabiria across the road in the Petrie Barracks and business partner Jason Scott of Sydney's Shady Pines Saloon.

The pair have left many of the features of both the original hall and the Velvet Cigar. The result is a riotous, louche, 1920s- Pigalle-meets-19th-century-wild-west. There are are booths, huge carved mirrors, stained glass windows and the original chandeliers swinging from the pressed tin ceiling from where swathes of dusty red velvet hang.

"As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it, Webb says.

He's put in a carved oak bar on the ground floor, and a smaller pulpit-sized one upstairs – "Candy's Can Bar", which will dispense shots of whisky and cans of beer. Guests can sit up here and watch the live entertainment on the small stage below.

Another upstairs room will be painted blue and filled with kitsch naval antiques and christened "The Mermaid Lounge", Webb says. Some not-so-original features include an astonishing collection of taxidermy, picked up at auction. There are moose heads and stuffed peacocks, a small black bear and an armadillo among the collection.

"We have a grizzly coming from Alaska too,” Webb says. “It was hit by a car and killed and the bottom half was no good, so the top half has been stuffed so it will loom off the wall.”

If you can tear yourself away from taking in the decor, the drinks list will feature craft beer and whisky as well as a small French wine list. Lefty's Old Time Music Hall is scheduled to open on June 6.