History Main / OpiumDen

* In the beginning of ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' comic, Alan Quatermain is in an opium den.

* Jack Black's (not ''[[NamesTheSame that]]'' Creator/JackBlack) ''You Can't Win'' is a ''brilliant'' memoir about his experiences as a train-hopping thief. He becomes addicted to opium and writes extensively about his experiences in these places.

->She messed around with a bloke named Smokey
->She loved him, though he was cokey
->He took her down to Chinatown
->And showed her how to kick that gong around

* ''Music/{{Rush}}'': The travelers in "A Passage to Bangkok" from ''Music/TwentyOneTwelve'' visit a few of these.

* Webcomic/CtrlR'': Their former apartment that their former roommate Rock still lives in, was revealed to have been turned into this.

* In ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', Anthony passes by one while traveling through London.

* In ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' by Creator/JulesVerne, the detective Fix gets Passepartout drunk and stoned in an opium den in UsefulNotes/HongKong in order to separate him from Phileas Fogg.

Historically associated with Chinese culture, but not all are from that area. Limehouse, in UsefulNotes/{{London}}, was [[http://eastlondonhistory.com/chinatown-in-limehouse/ not actually that bad at all]] (the actual reason for the prevalence of this trope is, to cut a long story short, that in the 1800s the British virtually got everyone in China hooked on opium because [[SpotOfTea the Chinese had a lot of stuff]] the [[UsefulNotes/TeaAndTeaCulture British wanted to buy]], but the British had nearly nothing the Chinese wanted).

->She loved him, though was cokey

->And he showed her how to kick the gong around

* In ''Series/{{Dracula}}'', members of the Order of the Dragon AncientConspiracy go to a 19[[superscript:th]]-century London opium den, where a pair of {{Seers}} sell their services. Whether their liberal use of the product [[JunkieProphet helps them]] in their [[TrackingSpell scrying]] or is just a pastime is left unsaid, but [[spoiler:Dracula gives them a nasty PokeInTheThirdEye for their intrusion either way]].

* ''Film/BlindWomansCurse'': A Japanese {{Yakuza}} boss has one of these where comely topless women smoke pipes, and apparently are used as prostitutes by the boss's nooks.

%% * You visit one in ''VideoGame/TheTestamentOfSherlockHolmes''.

* The Blue Lotus in the ''Comicbook/{{Tintin}}'' book of the same name. This being a more upmarket, well-painted example, frequented by businessmen and diplomats.

* Creator/PeterDavid's ''Comicbook/FallenAngel'' has an arc where Lee smokes opium in a hookah in Asia Minor's place.

[[folder:Film]]

* The ''Film/DoctorMabuse'' films feature a few ones. The titular Doctor finds his victims there, among corrupt millionaires and aristocrats.
* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'' begins and ends with the guilt-ridden protagonist Noodles seeking solace in an opium den.
* In ''Film/{{Brick}}'', the area behind Carrow's Restaurant where Dode and the other stoners hang out is intended to reference this, as evidenced by the Asian-sounding musical cues.

* ''Film/ThoroughlyModernMillie'' has one of these that doubles as a prostitution/white slaving ring.
* Harvey Keitel's eponymous (and [[NoNameGiven nameless]]) ''Film/BadLieutenant'' visits a latter-day heroin den that otherwise fits the trope.
* In ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', Anthony passes by one while traveling through London.

* Eddie visits one toward the end of 1935's ''The Cocaine Fiends''.

* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', the dream-den beneath Yusuf's shop seems intended to evoke this.
* D.W. Griffith's tragedy ''Film/BrokenBlossoms'' takes place in Limehouse. The Chinese hero, a Buddhist missionary, falls on hard times and takes to the pipe.
* ''Film/BlindWomansCurse'': A Japanese {{Yakuza}} boss has one of these where comely topless women smoke pipes, and apparently are used as prostitutes by the boss's nooks.
* ''Film/TheMountie'': After accidentally killing a child, Grayling became an opium addict. A flashback shows him being roused by the hostess and led out of the den.

* One shows up in the Literature/SherlockHolmes story "The Man with the Twisted Lip". [[TheWatson Watson]] got sent to retrieve another man and finds Holmes there; Holmes must reassure Watson that he's only there undercover as part of an investigation and has not "added opium to the list of my vices".
* Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood'' begins in one.
* Appears in at least one of the ''Literature/FuManchu'' stories as a front for the Devil Doctor's activities.
* Creator/RobertEHoward 's Rhomerian "weird menace" novel ''Skull Face'' starts with protagonist Steven Costigan (a u.s. veteran of WWI) escaping the nightmares of the Argonne trench warfare in an Opium Den located, of all places, in London's Limehouse.
* Jack Black's (not ''[[NamesTheSame that]]'' Creator/JackBlack) ''You Can't Win'' is a ''brilliant'' memoir about his experiences as a train-hopping thief. He becomes addicted to opium and writes extensively about his experiences in these places.

* Opium dens are depicted in all their squalor in Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/TheFireRose'', which is set in California during the age of trains.
* Creator/AgathaChristie's "The Lost Mine" on "Poirot's early cases" features one.

* Darius goes to one regularly in ''Literature/ThePhantomOfManhattan''.
* An illegal opium den is depicted in the comic novel ''The Fairy Gunmother'' (original title: ''La fée carabine'') by French author Daniel Pennac. It appears in a flashback set in the 1950's in Paris and is frequented by war veterans and [[spoiler: high-ranking government officials]]

* The Granada adaptation of "[[Literature/SherlockHolmes The Dying Detective]]" (though ''not'' the original story). Another one appears in both versions of "The Crooked Man."

* The "dive" that Sister Clarice frequents (and invites Amanda Greystone to) in ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' is fairly obviously a Fantastic Opium Den.
* Chuck Bass (who else?) takes refuge at one of these when his father dies, on ''Series/GossipGirl''.
* In the second season of ''Series/TheBorgias'', Juan Borgia starts to frequent an opium den in Rome on the advice of his physician to cope with a leg wound and an STD. The drugs only seem to heighten his paranoia and mental breakdown.
* In the series ''Series/TheKnick'' a Chinatown opium den is a favorite haunt of Dr. Thackery.

* In ''Series/{{Dracula}}'', members of the Order of the Dragon AncientConspiracy go to a 19[[superscript:th]]-century London opium den, where a pair of {{Seers}} sell their services. Whether their liberal use of the product [[JunkieProphet helps them]] in their [[TrackingSpell scrying]] or is just a pastime is left unsaid, but [[spoiler:Dracula gives them a nasty PokeInTheThirdEye for their intrusion either way]].

* The Meat King's Party mission from ''VideoGame/HitmanContracts'' features an opium den where you can pose as an attendant and serve one of your targets an opium pipe before taking him out.

* ''Wizardry 7'' has one, and your characters ''get to participate''. If you do, your characters get visited by some kind of SpiritAdvisor who gives you a really powerful item.

* In the now lost Playdom interactive game ''Blackwood and Bell Mysteries'', when the group goes to Hong Kong, they have to search for clues in one of these.
* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', "prisoner's honey" is a {{fantastic|Drug}} version of opium, complete with shady and scandalous honey-dens.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", Chang retreats to one to smoke opium to dull the pain as he dies after his leg is torn off by a giant rat.

* The Granada adaptation of "[[SherlockHolmes The Dying Detective]]" (though ''not'' the original story). Another one appears in both versions of "The Crooked Man."

* Men At Work's ''LandDownUnder'' has one of these.

* ''Music/{{Rush}}'': The travelers in "A Passage to Bangkok" visit a few of these.

* The Granada adaptation of "[[SherlockHolmes The Dying Detective]]" (though ''not'' the original story).

[[ChooseYourOwnAdventure Do you:]]