Soho sleaze and striptease

Some more Soho clubs from the golden age of striptease.

Blue City Revue Club (30 Peter St)

Churchills (160 New Bond St)

El Paradise (24 Brewer St)

Flamingo Striptease Revue (3 Berwick St)

Gigi Club (62 Frith St)

Keyhole Theatre (55 Old Compton St)

Morocco Club (40 Frith St)

Walkers Court Club (5 Walkers Court)

So far I've only listed clubs where I know the full address.

(25-08-2016 00:21 )elgar1uk Wrote:  Nell Gwynne (69 Dean St, entrance in Meard St)

I thought the Nell Gwynne shows were great, although I only caught the club for the first time in 1981 and it closed at the end of 1982, so I didn't see that much of it. The acts were really well staged and I can still remember very clearly some of the girls I saw there. I remember too the small lift that took you up to the club from the ground floor, good old Joe the lift operator and Scottish Fiona the topless barmaid. Such good memories!

(23-08-2016 21:22 )mrmann Wrote:  Gotta admit, many years back I went to one of those SOHO underground bars and they were nasty and dodgy as hell. They made regular strip clubs look classy!

Recently someone told me a similar story. He had been lured downstairs into one of these clip joints you describe and found there was no show as advertised. Not only was there no show, he ended up with a ridiculous bill, which he sensibly refused to pay. The tough guy demanding the money was also blocking him from leaving, so he wasn’t sure what his fate was going to be.

He showed no sign of giving in and eventually the tough told him that if he didn’t pay he would be in trouble as they would call the police. This struck him as an outcome he was more than happy with, so he said that they should just go ahead and call the police then. Predictably they didn’t and just let him leave, although they gave him a couple of hard shoves on the way out.

Westminster City council claim there are none of these clip joints left in Soho, so hopefully that is truly the case and those despicable places have had their day.

Advertising for the Casino de Paris, 1964. Those were the days!

If we're posting pictures, I can't resist the temptation to post one from the Windmill.

Some more Soho strip clubs. Gone but not forgotten!

Arcadia (6 Brewer St)

Carousel (11 Greek St)

Contessa (12 Archer St)

Jacks Club (38 Goodge St)

Maxims Revue Bar (29-30 Frith St)

Moulin Rouge (40 Great Windmill St)

Pink Pussycat (8-10 Brewer Street)

Wardour Club (201-203 Wardour St)

Maxims should have been one of the first I listed, as for a time it was the best known club except for Raymond's place.

I hope we can get some comment on these clubs, although seeing them listed out does have some interest.

If we're posting pictures, surely we must have one of that famous Soho landmark, the old neon sign for the Raymond Revuebar.

Inside that dodgy famous alley, back in 08/09 I used to go to a club that was next to the little cinema, and you had to buy your ticket outside below, and then take the steps up two flights to the strip club.

It was always my detox place when I was in the area, either before going out to a restaurant, to see a movie, or go to a club, or it was my after party place, later on.

Most of the time the women were very attractive with great bodies, and the harassment from the women was low. Also, the vibe was very chill, prices pretty low too, and they had a little stage show as well.

Don't get me wrong, every once and again the kinds of women there would be so so, but 9/10 times there would always be a few stunners!

I moved away for a few years, and when I went back to visit in 2012, it had gone way downhill. Most of the women were not attractive, seemed really overly skanky, and when they'd talk to me, sometimes they'd accidentally spit a bit, which is a massive pet peeve of mine, with anyone.

The owner/s and employees seemed unhappy, and it just didn't feel like much fun, despite the newly refurbished layout still being decent and mostly the same as before.

On top of that, I became increasingly more aware that everything I entered or left the club, that there seemed to be so many more people out front than from years past. Now it seemed like the outside lighting was even brighter and that everyone was walking by was paying more attention to the people entering and leaving, which I wasn't big on.

Not that I really cared deep down, but if there are plenty of people who will think you are a sicko just for walking down those alleys, and it I could avoid certain friends of mine who had that attitude from seeing me, that would be nice LOL.

Last I went there was back in 2013', and it still was worse than the year before. I stayed there for an hour, then hightailed it out of there and went to the superior Angels on Wardour Street.

Haven't been back to L.A Confidential in a long time though, but always liked it!

Hi
Just back and have been reading the post with interest.
On the theme I was talking to one friend, this person is now 80, he is still mobile but his days of clubs and pubs are over, however he has many recollections and I would like to share these.
Back in the day the area around Warren Street had been damaged during the war by bombs and the free space was occupied up till around 1979 by second hand car dealers, who rented the space till it was ready for development. These were the guys in trilbies and sheepskins with phrases like “Nice little runner Gov”
Anyway his uncle was one of these dealers and a bachelor who was a regular at these clubs and so when my friend reached 21 he took him out for a good night.
His uncles favourite club was in Beak Street run by a lady called, Helen O’ Brien who was in effect a Romanian national and a lady who had worked the clubs in Europe, check out her obituary, well worth a read, the club today is a upmarket hamburger place but in the 1950s it was the home to a wide variety of individuals, including the aristocracy, the criminals and the spies of their day.
Link to the obituary is below and defiantly worth a read.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/se...icahorwell
Moving on to more recent times he was saying that in the 1960s the situation was strange, the police were always looking for a conviction, the clubs that were open without the full annual membership were being raided and when that happened the police took the customers details, several people had a visit by the Met at their place of work.
He was saying that it was only the ordinary people who came under this scrutiny the others were let of without comment, he had an address in in Hampstead and when asked his occupation he gave his father’s firm of solicitors so it was never followed up.
He went on to discuss some of the clubs that were not rip off outlets, Casino de Paris in Denman Street was a particular favourite, other clubs were the ones on short term leases which existed sometimes for a few weeks rarely more than a few months, the promised the earth but delivered little but were popular as they were safe and had the air of sleaze about them.
The girls who worked these clubs in the 70s and the 80s were on a rota and they went from one club to another, so if you were splashing the cash and visiting three clubs you could see the same girls.
In Goodge Street in the old days there was a drinking club with a stripper on at lunch time and he can recall seeing one of the old Soho favourites a girl with dark hair, nice smile and always with her hair up dancing there at the time he thought she would have been around 50 but he could recall her dancing when she had been in her 20s, lovely girl but perhaps a bit sad at her age.
Of the other places, between Walkers Court and Berwick Street there was on the corner a small shop which in the 1990s/2000s sold fetish items but he was saying for a time in the early 1980s it was a small strip club, closed down in one of the many police raids at that time.
Well that’s my contribution for now, hope it was of some benefits to the readers and will post more later

Kev