The sign outside promises live naked girls
for pounds 1. But for expectant customers looking for a bargain, this proves to be a
disappointment. Not only do the girls keep their knickers on, but the punters also have to
pay twice the price for the privilege of looking at them. Competing with strip bars, lap
dancing clubs and services now available on the Internet, desperate measures are needed to
lure men off Soho's Brewer Street and up the shabby carpeted staircase into one of
Britain's few remaining peep shows. A makeover would certainly help. With its orange
decor, red carpet, mirrored walls and tinsel curtain, it looks like a 1960s film set - you
half expect Michael Caine to walk in for a word with the guv'nor.
The sex industry's equivalent to the dirty postcard, the services offered are equally
antiquated. For £2, men can stand in one of six darkened cubicles and for 50 seconds peep
through a rectangular perspex slot the size of a letter box while a topless girl gyrates
on a bed. As the pound coins are fed into the slot there is a creak and the wooden flap
covering the window lifts up. The 'wall' dividing the 'bedroom' and the punter's cubicle
is made from thick cardboard, through which the girls and men can hear each other talking.
The girls can also see the men as they are being watched.
It's tame stuff compared with some of the other sex shows on offer in the area and
business isn't exactly booming. It doesn't even cover the rent or the wages at the
moment, complains the manager, a troubled-looking man wearing white plimsolls and
sovereign rings.
Two girls at a time work in a room just big enough to hold two double beds, positioned
in front of a mirrored wall and divided by a red velvet curtain which, like the bed
sheets, has seen better days. Each bed backs on to three cubicles which are constantly
monitored by security cameras. On the wall is a clock, a tube map and a notice which
reads: '£5 will be deducted from your wages for every ten minutes you're late.' This
seems a bit steep, considering the girls are paid a mere £45 for a six- hour shift.
I
do feel a bit sorry for them but they don't have to do much, do they? says the
manager. They only have to lie on a bed. They read, have tea - it's not that hard.
Nancy, 20, agrees. I'm probably making the same amount of money working four shifts
here as I would full-time in a bar, she says.
In what other job can you choose
your hours and take home a reasonable amount of money and still be left with free time?
A drama student from Cornwall, Nancy has been working at the peep show for four months.
The money goes towards her college fees and as she waits for clients on the bed, wearing a
dangerously high pair of heels and looking fleshy, curvy and vampy, she writes her
coursework essays. In her civilian clothes, sitting in a local cafe, she looks like a
typical student with vermilion hair, red lips, blue nails and tortoiseshell glasses. In
repose her face is serious, almost sullen, and she talks about her job with casual
detachment. Ask what a nice middle-class girl like her is doing in a place like this and
you get a pat response. 'It's just a job,' she insists.
A friend who worked at the peep show suggested she tried her luck there when she heard
that Nancy was looking for part-time work. 'The fact that it was a peep show was never an
issue,' she says, sipping her hot chocolate. 'Even now I don't really see myself as part
of the sex industry. A lot of the girls here are students, or travelling, and we all see
it as a means to an end. I can detach myself from what I'm doing and not think about
what's going on on the other side of the wall.'
What she does once the money has gone into the slot and the flap of the cubicle lifts
is governed by strict rules, as the place is licensed only for 'music and dancing'. 'You
basically pose,' she says, with an embarrassed laugh.
I'll probably start on my knees,
gyrate around a bit, then turn round and stick my bum in the air, then possibly lie down
and put my legs in the air and do the splits. It's that unexciting. You're not even
thinking What shall I do next? as you do the same thing so many times.
In the grubby kitchen next door there are tacky leather thongs and red lace teddies on
sale for £20. The clients can buy them and ask the girls to wear them, although Nancy
hasn't been asked to do this yet. A lot of people expect a lot more than dancing -
they want to see legs spread. You get drunk lads coming in who'll shout, Take your
knickers off, but we're not allowed to do anything like that. You might run your hands
over your bum but you're not allowed to touch anything down below - no, no, no. I think
that's why the cameras are on us, to check that we're not doing anything like that, but
also that we're not asleep.
That's not to say they can't sleep while they're not working - with only about a
quarter of their time spent entertaining clients (Nancy estimates it at 100 minutes per
shift), there is plenty of time to read, chat on mobiles, eat chocolate, make tea and
gossip. They are not meant to leave the room unless they need to go to the loo.
If
someone you know well is on the other bed, time passes really quickly, she says. Even
work won't interrupt a conversation. We just carry on. Sometimes they'll shout, Oi! I
can hear what you're
saying.But what do they expect for £2?'
However, the girls are on show and, as such, are literally exposing themselves to
criticism. Sometimes when there's a big group they'll look at both girls and compare
you. They'll say things like, Which one do you think's better? and it's horrible,'
Nancy
says, looking vulnerable for the first time. 'I was on the verge of tears once as I
heard them say, She's fucking ugly. For the rest of the evening I didn't want people to
come into my booth. But as my boyfriend says, the kind of men who visit peep shows -
particularly drunk wankers - aren't the kind of men whose opinion matters. I wish I was
strong enough, that it didn't affect me, but it does, it really does.
At least the girls have some small means of retaliation. 'I know girls who will
shut the flap if the blokes look obnoxious, or are pulling particularly disgusting faces.
Another girl I know will just turn her back. Sometimes we'll point and laugh at them. Or
if I'm working with another girl and she says, Eergh, he's horrible, I'll peer around the
curtain and pull a face,' Nancy says, curling her lip to demonstrate. But there's
another side to it.You can feel desired, I suppose, or at least confident or
attractive, because people are paying to look at you. Sometimes it's nice after several
hours of silent scrutiny to get the odd drunk bloke going, Cor, she's nice. It reminds you
that they're human. But most of us don't take this remotely seriously, or care that much
what anyone thinks.
Nancy's shortsighted and considers it an advantage not to be able to see the client.
But whatever the girls do to distance themselves from the men, they can't escape the
seediness. After all, the private, individual cubicles are there for a reason. 'Sometimes
their heads jerk around and you can hear them thumping the wall, If you'd told me a couple
of years ago that there'd be someone masturbating just in front of me I'd be like eeuurk.
But you get to the point where you think it's normal. All men masturbate, and it's not as
if you have to watch. It's a natural function and in some ways it's better they get their
release in that way than by doing horrible things to people, don't you think?
What surprises her most is that, apart from the odd few - like the man who holds up his
own handwritten instructions to the peephole (which are too disgusting to print) - most of
the customers are what she calls 'Mr Average'.
You'd think they'd be the dirty
mac brigade but the majority are businessmen who work in the area, respectable-looking
family men in suits. You know it will get busy between 1.05pm and 2.05pm as it's their
lunch break. It's the same at four and five o'clock when they finish work, and sometimes
first thing in the morning as well. That's the first thing they do - it beggars belief.
What's going through their heads? Are they sitting behind their desks, thinking, Ooh, I
can't wait, I can't wait?' she pauses, before adding, 'Sometimes I think, Aren't men
peculiar?'
But she insists that the experience hasn't put her off the male of the species. She has
a boyfriend who is 'fine' about what she does, and, as she reasons, Any man I'd choose
to be involved with wouldn't be that sad as to get worked up about it. But she knows
her work attracts a fair number of undesirables. It's worried me at times, as you look
at people and can see that they're smiling or having a good time, while others stare at
you with such intensity that they look disturbed. I imagine it can be a breeding ground
for men's fantasies and that violent or mentally ill men will be attracted to it.
That, she admits, makes her uneasy - especially when she's become the main focus of
attention.
Unlike other girls, Nancy has never been approached in the street by her clients. 'I'm
lucky like that,' she says. Two men waited for one girl on different occasions but they
were young and polite, and simply wanted to say, I really liked what you did. Have you
got a boyfriend? But as Nancy admits, You can't help thinking that if it's
possible for nice men to do that, then it could also be possible for men who aren't so
nice.
Her mostly relaxed attitude - I'm not shocked by very much - could be as much
down to bravado as it is bored disdain. She denies that she's attracted to the voyeuristic
nature of her work. I'm not shy, but I'm not an exhibitionist, It's not that I enjoy
people looking at me, but I have no fear of it. I also think it's healthy to have a more
relaxed attitude towards nudity, which is something British people don't have - we're so
uptight about it.
Many of the girls she works with have become friends, which helps create what she calls
'a sense of community'. A lot of them say, The body is a beautiful thing, so why not
show it?, which is nice as it gives your own reasoning validation. She claims never
to have stumbled across any hint of prostitution or drugs while she's been working, or
been offered to take her services further - let alone been tempted.
It wouldn't even
occur to me, I haven't met one girl at the peep show who would have sex for money, not
one. And I have met at least 30 or 40 girls.'
Recently she's been tiring of the job. Not because of the sexual aspect, or the
nudity, or because I'm disgusted, It's just the monotony. She certainly doesn't want
to be doing it in ten years' time. For the moment, however, she'll continue to fuel her
clients' fantasies.
