James Bond's old watering hole, Bottoms Up, goes on the market

Bottoms Up, the bar which - in its original, Tsim Sha Tsui cellar location - rose to fame after appearing in the James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun, is up for sale.

Manager Vitus Cheung said the bar's shareholders believed that after 36 years of service, Bottoms Up, now a first-floor watering hole in Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, could be the oldest in Hong Kong.

While Mr Cheung claims the bar is still profitable, he says the shareholders want to 'test its market value' and are prepared to sell for the right price.

Forget its reputation as a girlie bar, as depicted in the 1974 movie. Bottoms Up is more respectable now, even holding functions for corporations. Women are also more than welcome in the bar, which was closed down as recently as 1994 in a government obscenity crackdown. The topless girls were forced to wear bras.

'This is a great bar, which many tourists from all over the world know well,' Mr Cheung said.

'We have customers who keep coming back. This is a friendly place, everyone loves the girls who work here. They are some of the friendliest in Hong Kong.'

Noted past customers have included filmmaker Wong Kar-wai. In the 1970s, accomplished actors and famed drinkers such as George Peppard and Peter Sellers would visit.