Sex Sells in Soho

In the last two months, Westminster Council licensing inspectors have raided and closed down two illegal hostess bars, which lured men in under the false premise of adult entertainment then charged them exorbitant rates for soft drinks in the company of hostesses. One of these hostess bars was also an illegal gambling club.

Clip joints, as they are informally known, have previously circumvented licensing legislation by not selling alcohol or offering adult entertainment, despite displaying garish signs such as “sexy girls”.

But following extensive lobbying from Westminster City Council, the LLA Act 2007 (London Local Authorities Act) means the venues now need to apply for a sex establishment licence if they wish to continue trading, putting them under the control of the local licensing authority for the first time.

Two years ago there were eight clip joints operating in Westminster but tough enforcement by Westminster Council and the Metropolitan Police for breaches of planning and health and safety regulations has led to the closure of six.

On 18 December, three police officers from Charing Cross Clubs and Vice Unit visited a flat in Romilly Street, Soho, London and issued a written notice against Ms Tracey Ramsey who works as a receptionist there, that they intend charging her with controlling prostitution for gain. Soho has been one of the safest places for women in the sex industry to work. As a receptionist, Ms Ramsey is women’s first line of defence against violent attacks and exploitation. If the police are allowed to proceed against Ms Ramsey, other receptionists will be driven away and women will be forced to work alone. Why are police targeting safe premises?

The police are familiar with this and other flats in Soho. The police notice claimed that their visit was to check the welfare of the occupants and to ensure that there are no juveniles or trafficked victims working at the location. It threatened charges such as:“to keep or to manage, or to act or assist in the management of a brothel; controlling prostitution for gain as well as causing or inciting child prostitution. No underage or trafficked women or any evidence of force or coercion was found at the premises, and none had been found during the weekly visits by the police during the whole month of September.

This is an abuse of process.

A judge has ruled that a Soho brothel shut down by police earlier this month can reopen for business.

Metropolitan police officers used antisocial behaviour legislation that came into effect at the end of last year to issue a closure notice on two flats in Dean Street, Soho, where sex is sold. But yesterday Mr Justice Riddle, sitting at Horseferry Road magistrates court, refused the Metropolitan Police's application to have the closure order confirmed.

I am not satisfied that any person has engaged in antisocial behaviour on the premises, he ruled.

A large group of sex workers and their maids made a rare public appearance when they attended the court hearing earlier this week. They were supported by some of Soho's residents including Father David Gilmore, rector of St Anne's church.

In court, sergeant Dean Else argued that antisocial behaviour, crime and disorder, blatant acts of drug dealing and clipping in the local environs were linked to the sale of sex inside 61 Dean Street. When asked to provide examples of incidents of antisocial behaviour linked to the sex work flats he cited the example of a member of the public who had their wrist cut to facilitate a robbery at the premises. He admitted, however, that he had not been able to find any record of this incident on the police computer and Mr Justice Riddle said that the evidence was third-hand, anonymous hearsay.

Father Gilmore said that drug dealing was common throughout Soho, including outside his church: but I have never seen it happening outside 61 Dean Street.

Sgt Else said: I understand the judge's decision. Now I have to go back and arrange for the premises to be reopened.

A senior police officer claims that there are more fake prostitutes and drug dealers than real ones on the streets of Soho in London's West End. Soho was once known as a notorious area for its sex shops, but now while there are still some prostitutes who work inside some premises, the ones on the streets are almost all fake operators.

Det Chief Supt Andy Rowell says that the area has been cleaned-up by the police, but now the danger comes from con artists targeting gullible foreign tourists and out-of-town visitors.

The fake drug dealers pass off boot polish or liquorice as cannabis, and wax wrapped in foil as crack cocaine and aspirin pills, with the markings rubbed off on the side of a matchbox, as tablets.

Where the fake prostitutes are concerned, around 15 of them work together by taking a deposit for a room then disappearing, or luring a punter into an alleyway where a male accomplice will relieve them of their cash.

Rowell said: Soho is now a safe place to come and enjoy yourself - but please don't come looking for drugs and prostitutes. You will almost certainly get something you didn't expect.

A drive to clean up Soho and to diminish its red-light image has been unveiled by Westminster City Council.

Council leader Colin Barrow has pledged to shut down the last remaining unlicensed sex premises following the recent closure of 51 sex shops and the complete eradication of clip joints.

Councillor Barrow said: The idea that the seedy side of Soho is a magnet for tourists and creative trade is a flawed one. It may well be a curiosity, but there is no compelling economic argument for this.

This is not about sanitising the area...BUT...simply making it fit for a modern capital city where people are more aware than ever of the true costs of prostitution and drugs to society.

Soho is losing its unique atmosphere because of crackdowns on vice and an influx of chain restaurants, according to historians.

BBC presenter Dan Cruickshank is leading calls for Westminster council and police to stop trying to sanitise the district.

The council has announced a drive against drug dealers, street prostitutes and unlicensed sex shops, as well as drunken and anti-social behaviour, in an attempt to 'clean up' the area before the expected influx of visitors for the 2012 Olympics.

A police operation this month led to 50 arrests. More than 60 pedicabs have been seized and some £500,000 of illegal pornography destroyed following 22 raids on unlicensed sex shops.

But historians and residents say late-night revelry and all that goes with it are part the area's character. Cruickshank, who presented Around the World in 80 Treasures on BBC2, said: Soho is almost beyond recovery and I find it rather heartbreaking. Now it attracts chain shops, chain bars and chain restaurants and is no longer unconventional or curious. If the drunk and disorderly are people who come from outside as somewhere to hang out it's not on. But equally, a sense of wildness and inventive roughness creates some artistic individuals who do some interesting things.

Soho is still home to celebrated bars, clubs and restaurants, and is the hub of London's gay scene. Cruickshank said sex shops had long been part of the local scene.

Members Only by Paul Willetts is a biography of Soho porn mogul Paul Raymond.

Paul Willetts writes:

For all Paul Raymond's manifest faults and unappealing characteristics, I began to see him as an unexpectedly heroic figure. There was something admirable about the dogged yet stylish way in which he challenged the authorities and the old, often hypocritical assumptions. His first major brush with controversy came in April 1958 when he opened the Revuebar, located in the heart of Soho, an area traditionally associated with the commercial exploitation of sex. Among Britain's first strip-clubs, it cunningly sidestepped the rules on nudes having to remain static. Raymond did so by making the Revuebar a private members' club instead of a conventional theatre. Since the delights of striptease had hitherto been almost inaccessible, his club attracted a sizeable membership list before it had even opened. Its popularity was destined to bring him into conflict with the Metropolitan Police's Clubs Office which sought a pretext to close down the Revuebar.

Through his battle with the authorities, which continued for well over a decade, Raymond played a pivotal but largely unacknowledged role in the erosion of stifling censorship and the establishment of the so-called Permissive Society in Britain during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Motivated by commercial self-interest that masqueraded as staunch libertarian principle, he challenged the police, judiciary and press. Successive court cases, one of which could have led to him being gaoled, enabled him to push the skin trade — be it strip-shows, magazines or theatre shows — from the margins into the mainstream.