I hear on the grapevine that the DeJaVu / FYEO Mayfair takeover may have fallen through, this would leave DeJaVu still looking for a first Hustler London venue.February sees the planned opening of the long awaited 5th Secrets club {see www.secrets-clubs.com } near St Katherine´s dock which has been in the pipeline for over a year. It´s on the ground floor of a block of luxury flats which has caused some local opposition from people who see it as detrimental to the property value.
The Venus club near Smithfield meat market has been offering full nude table dances for £10 in January, it looks like the winter sale season has even reached the lap dancing industry! January is also the season of refurbishment work with clubs like FYEO Bournemouth and Inhibitions in Hayes closing for a few weeks for improvements to be made. I also hear the Platinum Bar in Paul St near the City is currently run by an ex Spearmint Colnbrook doorman. The growth of chains like FYEO, SR, and Secrets is rapidly expanding the pool of experienced managerial staff in the UK, and it seems very likely that some will want to open their own clubs as time goes on.
January also saw the 5th running of the ” Miss Shoreditch ” poll to find the East End´s top stripper on the Yahoo London strip message board. At the time of writing this column the leading contenders included Eloise, Danielle and Shannon .
The London borough of Greenwich has seen something of a local boom in nude entertainment of late. A Promises pub, the Horse and Groom, has been running for many months now and it was joined in October by the Mermaid table dancing club in Woolwich. In December applications to open 2 further venues were made with another pub the George and Dragon {a gay bar} and a 2nd TD club to be called Meantime.
At the GMB Union conference in December Ana Lopes of the affiliated International Sex Workers section announced that the Union was running ” Learn how to lap dance and striptease ” courses aimed primarily at changing prostitutes occupation. A leaflet is to be circulated to all GMB officials explaining the course.
Shake and Swing the London pole dancing school run by the very athletic former dancer Sam Kirli has moved to new, larger, and better equipped premises { below} at 275, New North Rd , London N1 on the back of a very successful 2003. Sam is also currently recruiting additional instructors, seewww.shakenswing.co.uk for details.
The excellent Mypole web site www.mypole.co.uk is celebrating it´s 2nd birthday by having a competition to win a free pole. It will run during February details via the web site.
Out to the West of London an Entertease supplied pub called the Evergreen has opened in Calcott near Reading with girls on Wednesday night only at present though the word is this may soon be extended. Apparently the landlord used to run the late lamented Flint Cottage in High Wycombe. While out in that part of the world the small chain of Honeypot strip pubs {Slough, Maidenhead, and Reading} now has a web site www.the-honey-pot.com . There is also a new Promises venue called the Culvert in nearby Uxbridge which is another mixed gay club this is one night a week only as yet.
Plans to open a 2nd Legs 11 branch in Birmingham have run into opposition as the building chosen, the Merchant Stores building in Broad Street, is listed and local preservation organisations are opposed to lap dancing signs on the outside.
The expansion of the number of clubs outside London continues at some pace with the larger towns getting 2nd and 3rd clubs and some quite small places opening their first. In Wakefield the first club in town the Blue Rooms {seewww.bluerooms.org } only opened in the late autumn and there are now license applications outstanding for 2 further venues in the town centre, the 20/20 and Shooters Pool and Lounge. A club called Secrets {no connection to the London chain} opened up in Middlesbrough { the first in the town itself though the 3rd in Teeside} just before Christmas and there are applications outstanding for the first clubs in quite small towns like Chorley {Hot Legs in a derelict McDonalds in Market street !}, Lancashire Ripley {Matrix}, Derbyshire and Stafford {Most Wanted}. Even in Northern Ireland where religion often dominates a pub called the Quiet Man has started pole dancing once a week in Londonderry.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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