London Out Loud - Soho's losing its sex appeal

But visitors can still taste the area’s raunchy reputation by stepping into Soho’s remaining sex shops.

Soho is a small square of central London, and has been home to London’s sex industry for at least 200 years.

The area, which is bound by Oxford Street in the north, Shaftesbury Avenue in the south and the Charing Cross Road in the east, is full of restaurants, bars, sex shops, peepshows and strip clubs.

In earlier times the area along Wardour Street and up Old Compton Street was home to over 250 unlicensed sex shops, illegal bars and many freelance prostitutes.

But the tighter licensing laws and police crackdowns of the 1980s hurt business in the area. By 2000, most of the area’s unlicensed sex shops and clubs had been shut down.

The ones that have remained open are now concentrated in the Brewer Street and Berwick Street area.

Soho today

Walk down the streets of Soho today and you will notice the absence of lurid neon light and raunchy advertisements.

As for the shops - those that are still open - they are now harder to find. However, Walker’s Lane, where the famous Raymond Revue Bar strip club is located, is still open for business.

Alex Lloyd, sales assistance at Ann Summer in Soho, says, “Sex shops in Soho are the best place people to go as they have a huge range of budget products. It’s a one-stop shopping experience for people who looking for sex products, and they are also cheaper than the shops outside the area.”

High-end shop is booming

Outside Soho, however, business is thriving. These shops have a wide range of ‘high-end’ products and service that customers can avail of.

These shops are doing well mostly because they have been able to remove the embarrassment associated with buying sex toys.

No longer sleazy, dingy shops, today’s sex shops are swish, up scale boutiques that sell everything from toys and lingerie to books and erotic art.

The products tend to be elegant, beautiful, soft and more passionate.
“I think the main difference between traditional sex shops and us is that our products are more sensual – they bring back the beauty and romance of love making.

We take a different approach, that’s less sleazy. It’s about making the woman feel beautiful and sensual,” said Blanche Schofield, mini-mistress of Coco de Mer at Covent Garden.

But these shops must now fight off competition from online stores, which offer customers anonymity and variety.
Listen to our radio story ‘Dot.com VS Sex shops’ for more.