Strip joints in London

[ymcba321]

I can highly recommend the Sunset Strip - it's a great place, and the girls are always worth seeing. Quite a bit of variety - some are experienced poledancers, others are clearly moonlighting students in danger of falling off their platforms - but whatever they are, they're less than a foot from you if you sit in the front row.

If you've never done it - you owe it to yourself at least once to slide a fiver into a sexy girls panties while she thrusts her chest into your face - it ain't half bad!

Completely un-intimidating, with sexy girls and a suprisingly excellent taste in music, I can think of many worse ways to blow a few quid.

[welshken]

I agree, Sunset Strip is a top venue, great music, just wish we could have a lot more British girls, and a few that werent balder than Yul Brynner down below!!

[Tonywa]

Originally Posted by spartacus_p_m

I'm pretty sure that's the Olde Axe, Hackney Road.

I'm with you there. Certainly looks like the Axe.

[Jenkinson]

I would endorse all that ymcba321 and welshken say about the Sunset Strip. It's an enjoyable place to spend a free afternoon or evening in central London. The performers are generally well worth seeing. I was really delighted when I first discovered it back in 1990: at last, an honest strip show in Soho that delivered what it promised. Becoming something of a regular for a time, I was amused to find a passing reference to myself included in its review in a small book called "The London Strip Guide". The author, wrily describing the audience on a certain afternoon, assumed me to be a banker (which I'm not, except perhaps in rhyming slang).

At that time, the decor of the Sunset Strip was very tatty and probably quite unchanged since the 1960s. Definitely 'vintage erotica'! Renovation has occurred since, though I rather miss the phenomenally dusty old blue velvet curtain that would open tantalisingly slowly with many mechanical creaks and groans to reveal each successive performer. Now the girls just stride on to the open stage. There's not the same sense of anticipation. Of course, this is quibbling.

My earlier attempts to find striptease in Soho in the mid-1980s had only led me to a couple of clip-joints. and they were very nasty indeed. I had the sense to walk out of the first one fast, but the second tried to extort £70 with threats of violence and blackmail. After much argument, I escaped after handing over £16 - for absolutely nothing in the way of erotic entertainment. These vile places still operate, and I would warn any Soho novices who may read this to avoid them like the plague. If there is a young woman at the door of any establishment trying to lure you in, you can be sure that to enter is a very bad idea.

Aside from expensive table-dancing clubs, there are currently to my knowledge only two bona fide value-for-money strip shows in Soho. The Sunset Strip has already been mentioned. The other is the Boulevard Striptease Theatre, up a flight of stairs towards the northern end of Walkers Court, just off Brewer Street. I can recommend it as warmly as the Sunset Strip. It too charges £15, and the atmosphere and quality of the performers are equally good. The most striking difference between the two is the height of the stage. The Boulevard has a very high stage. When you are seated and the stripper is standing, your eyes are on a level with her calves. The girls tower above you, which is great when you're in the mood for a hint of fem dom, but a stiff neck can be the result if you sit in the front row too long. That said, I'm always reluctant to leave it, as, when the girls sit or lie down on the stage, the height suddenly seems just right! Many of the dancers cadge pretty openly for tips. You normally won't get much eye-contact from a girl unless you slip a fiver into her garter-belt. Considerable self-control is therefore required if an evening at the Boulevard is not going to cost rather more than the basic £15 entry. On the other hand, there is no pressure on you to leave, even if you don't tip. I've spent many a happy hour there.

[ymcba321]

Hi Jenkinson,

Thanks for letting me know about the Boulevard - I'll definitely give that one a go next time I'm in town. I like the idea of the high stage : ) I can see many a fiver ending up in a good home...

[welshken]

just remember, the girls rely on the tips, and they usually earn them.
Just make sure you have a few notes when you go in, they dont take credit cards, nowhere to swipe them, although watching the show, you may see a few places you'd like to swipe ! ! !

[brunel]

Originally Posted by ymcba321

I can highly recommend the Sunset Strip - it's a great place, and the girls are always worth seeing. Quite a bit of variety - some are experienced poledancers, others are clearly moonlighting students in danger of falling off their platforms - but whatever they are, they're less than a foot from you if you sit in the front row.

If you've never done it - you owe it to yourself at least once to slide a fiver into a sexy girls panties while she thrusts her chest into your face - it ain't half bad!

Completely un-intimidating, with sexy girls and a suprisingly excellent taste in music, I can think of many worse ways to blow a few quid.

I am thinking of visiting Sunset Strip as I have never been before. What are the prices like? Do you have to pay to talk to the girls at the bar? What sort of outfits do they wear on the stage? Thanks

[Mad Koala Bear]

Though I've not been myself, I prefer the walk-around strip pubs in West London, by all accounts the Sunset is a quality venue of its type. As far as I know the girls are very approachable in the bar as long, presumably, as you are buying the drinks. Its what makes a place like that and the pubs I visit better than the ubiquitous table dacing rip-off places.

[bigchris1971]

Slightly off topic, but there is the legendry White Horse in High Wycombe, where I am told Louise Hodges performed, it would be alot more of a pleasant venue than the Soho places.

They used to quite often have well known girls stripping at The White Horse in Wycombe - over the years I've seen not only Louise but also Vida Garman, Lynda Leigh, Laura Hawkins, Alison Brown, Gilly Sampson...happy memories! It's still going strong, but unfortunately nowadays it seems to be mostly unknown European girls

[Jenkinson]

There have been some changes at the Boulevard Striptease in Walkers Court, Soho, since I recommended it last year. Most obviously, it has changed its name. It’s now called “The French Pussy Cat” (though it hasn’t become any more French or feline!). It has also been partially refurbished, and there has been a perceptible shift in the primary emphasis of the business.

This last change I regret. The old Boulevard was a straightforward strip-show with a bar attached. You sat in the small theatre, enjoyed ogling the girls, and slipped into the next room for a drink if you wanted a break (i.e., usually when your least favoured performer took her turn on stage). The new "French Pussy Cat" is more like a hostess bar with a strip-show attached. The girls now spend most of their time in the bar, persuading men to buy them drinks at £4.50 a time. To be fair, the price is not extortionate, and much of the clientele seems to like the new regime: the bar is often full while the theatre is left deserted. But that’s disappointing for customers like me whose pleasure lies in prolonged exposure to the hypnotic appeal of non-stop striptease. I’d far rather slip any spare fiver in my pocket under a stripper’s garter in return for a close-up than pass it over the bar for five minutes chit-chat with a girl who may indeed be lovely to look at but whose conversational powers in the English language are likely to be limited – yet the customer is now gently but persistently pressed to do the latter. I’ve never felt any qualms about paying gorgeous girls to expose their physical attractions, but I find it depressing to think that I’m effectively paying somebody to pretend to be my friend and humour me with silly flattery.

All that said, I mustn’t be too curmudgeonly. "The French Pussy Cat", like the Boulevard before it, is an honest establishment and the quality of the girls remains high. It’s well worth a visit. Entrance is still £15. Only I don’t visit quite as often or stay quite as long as I used to do.