Peter Stringfellow having been successful in having his London club licensed for full nudity is turning his thoughts to expansion. Having overcome Westminster council to allow first topless dancing in 1996 and then full nudity in 2002 he must be feeling pretty confident that he can overcome any local objections. He opened his first mainland Europe club in Paris in April and is reportedly now also looking at premises in Manchester and Birmingham to take his formula to the provinces.
The most famous strip club in London is still probably Raymond’s Revue bar, which was the first place offer legal nudity in 1958. Paul Raymond himself {who still owns much of the property in Soho} sold out in 1997 to Gerald Simi who has maintained it’s reputation for glossy, well produced nude shows. However the pure theatre style format is starting to look slightly out of kilter in the table dance boom that has hit London and Simi has applied to Westminster council for a license to allow off stage nude table dancers. Given the success of Stringfellow’s in getting a full nude license off the same council it seems very likely that this application will be successful although it may involve the usual appeal nonsense. A combined high class stage show and table dancing venue will offer something new to the London scene and it will be interesting to see how this influences the other places.
I dropped into Spearmint’s Tottenham Court Rd club for the first time this month to give my sponsorship money to sexy Sam Kirli. The girls are both beautiful and friendly and overall the place is very impressive {if very expensive for a Shoreditch regular like me} but it did strike me that it lacks a sort of focal point. There are podium dancers but they are largely ignored and it struck me that a proper stage show like the Revue bar or the upstairs bar at the Men’s Gallery in Melbourne would do wonders to improve the atmosphere.
The replica of the Sopranos New Jersey Bada Bing club operated by long time conventional night club owners Richard and Anthony Travis, owners of Browns {not the famous strip pub but a trendy West End nightspot} and Denim {dead opposite Stringfellows, presumably that’s how they got the idea}, also opened in May in the Holborn area of London. It is on 3 floors though it is reportedly not a massive Spearmint sized emporium and looks once again to be aimed squarely at the city of London market. There were rumours of a gala opening involving the Soprano’s cast plus Pamela Anderson stripping for a reported £50,000 but this has not happened yet.
Rumours abound that Miss Shoreditch 2001 Swede Lisa Anderson is to make a comeback at Browns soon but though she has appeared on the schedule she has yet to appear in the flesh. Lovely Lisa was one of the first girls to have her own web site, whether she will repeat this is not known.
The Cherokee club which during it’s brief existence in the late 90s managed to lose an amazing £14m of investors money is due to be reopened as the 5th Secrets club {interestingly referred to as Secrets 4 although Secrets 5 has actually been open for several weeks, maybe some form of news maths invented since I left school explains this!} in September. The location is near the St Katherine’s dock/Tower of London city fringe, which has had considerable redevelopment of late and combines trendy flats and relocated city offices. Alan Whitehead no longer works at Secrets and is moving on to pastures new {see below} as seems to be the consistent pattern with his involvement in clubs.
Another new club in the Docklands area is to be opened on the Isle of Dogs near the massive Canary Wharf office development. The new club is called Mandingo’s and it will be members only, clientele is expected to come from the mix of city institutions and national newspapers that occupy that development. Apparently Alan Whitehead {who seems to have been involved in most London clubs in their early stages} will manage the venue, which is expected to open in June. Unusually there are reported to be no objections from either the Police or local council, whether they are getting used to the idea of adult entertainment or they have just got fed up with losing appeals I don’t know.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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