The most significant news of the month is that the courts have rejected the determined attempt by Camden council and the Metropolitan Police to revoke the alcohol license of Spearmint Rhino´s Tottenham Court Rd club and close it down. This was after the Police spent no less than 9 nights under cover trying to find something to complain about. Although there are still rumours of further cases pending the complete failure of this high profile court case should surely make both organisations realise that there are more useful ways of spending taxpayer´s money than this. In a good month for Spearmint all-round it has also been revealed that in it´s first full year of trading in the UK the chain made over £2m profit off sales of £10m.
On a more negative note for Spearmint I have heard that they have finally given up on the unsuccessful Uxbridge branch and which is to be converted back into a wine bar.
Unconnected to the above several of the Hackney strip pubs/clubs were raided by immigration officials early in March looking for girls working illegally. This has happened in the past though currently the number of girls from Eastern Europe working on the scene makes it more of a live issue.
While the club side seems to be slow at the moment several long established pubs are expanding their product offer of striptease. The Flags in Colnbrook, Slough and the Forrestors in Southend are now both offering striptease 7 days a week and have added table dancing to their repertoire. Both are supplied by the Tease agency.
Outside London the yokels of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire can now enjoy lap dancing but only 1 night a week so far { Thursday} at Karess@Club Royale courtesy of the Promises agency. I hope there is plenty of room to park the tractors. In homely Wigan another new club called Stilettos is scheduled to open in April. The UK´s capital of prudery remains Nottingham where an attempt to open a club called ” The Crocodile Club ” on an industrial estate was turned down by the council. The club is appealing and based on past experience will almost certainly win though Nottingham council for some reason has an unparalleled record of obstruction and cheating in this area.
The scantily clad burger bar ” Honkers” has now been converted into a full strip venue called “Bar 108 “. It´s at 108, Clerkenwell Rd {quite near Brown´s sister pub the Griffin} and is still thought to be connected by ownership to the Venus lap dancing club. Girls are supplied by the Angel´s agency set up by ex Rainbow girl Kitty. Reports suggest that the décor is good but unsurprisingly given the lack of publicity to date customers are still thin on the ground.
Talking of ” Stealth ” strip bars rumours that the Platinium Bar will reopen soon continue to surface but as yet it has remained resolutely shut every time I have walked past. I also heard rumours that Badabing was closing after Christmas but in fact it has been making a number of improvements to the premises which include a new front entrance giving a new address of 4, Great Queen St , WC2.
The docklands club Majingo´s now has a good web site { www.majngos.com } and the Axe´s web site , completely moribund for several years, has been re launched { see www.yeoldeaxe.com } with the promise of more activity in the future. Talking of web sites Shoreditch regular and model Sheridan now has her own site www.sheridanleigh.co.uk . Also to correct last month´s column the Full Service web site is now actually www.fullservice.org.uk . Stop Press …. The Full Service shows are no longer being run at Club Wicked , more details next month.
Browns star and top Asian ” babe ” model Capri Ashby { called Alex at Browns} tells me she is retiring from the scene to live in Cyprus at the beginning of April. A great loss in my view.
In mid March an unnamed club in NW10 was advertised for sale in the Evening Standard for £350k. This is apparently the very short lived Orchid Saloon which only opened in December 2002 as was mentioned in the December gossip column.
Raymond´s Review Bar has introduced women only lap dancing sessions aimed at lesbians on the 1st Sunday of every month.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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