Porn in the UK before it got legal - remember?

broxyman · December 13th, 2007, 02:25 PM

Anyone else remember the bad (or maybe good?) old days in the UK when all 'hardcore' porn was illegal? Up until 2001 or so the only way to get anything other than softcore porn was from abroad (illegal to import) or 'under the counter'.

Remember the scruffy unpleasant little magazine shops in Soho and Paddington? The password phrases you needed? Like "Have you got any Scans?" or "Have you got anything harder?". There was always a little room hidden away at the back where the more discerning customers were shown a box of Private magazines, or Color Climax, or similar, all specially brought in from Holland and sold at maybe £25 a copy - around £150 in today's terms! There might be a copy or two of Sex Bizarre, but that was even more sought after and would cost even more.

You could exchange them and get half back by way of a credit against another one, of course, but hardcore was still beyond the reach of most people.

Then came the porno cabins, where for 50p you could watch a couple of minutes of real hardcore from one of the Color Climax loops - highly illegal, but the police turned a blind eye for various reasons. The floors were always sticky because most people in the UK had never seen hardcore porn before at that time. Respectable business men used to go there after work, and do their best to bring themselves off for just one 50p coin before catching the train home to the wife, the children and suburbia. Never before had 50p brought so much pleasure - the chance to masturbate on the floor of some seedy cabin in Soho, watching a pretty young Scandinavian porn model actually being fucked for real!

pooklo · December 13th, 2007, 03:42 PM

Yup it was rubbish in the 80s and 90s. Often the best bit of a UK mag was the ads at the back, where they would print tiny thumbnails of "hardcore mags" for sale to unsuspecting suckers. They would put black dots over the offending bits, but even the thought that it was the proper thing was cool. Much better than the limp pretend hardcore we had to suffer.

Thing is, hardcore mags were very very rare in the UK, but videos were common, because they could be duplicated, and looked inconspicious.

I can still remember the first day I bought a modem in 1997. 14.4 baud. Searched for porn. HOLY CRAP! Took about an hour to download 20 images. Then 20 more the next day. Happy days.

thebadguy · December 13th, 2007, 04:17 PM

Yeh i recall it - all those dodgy back of the paper adverts when all you were buying was the edited versions

munki · December 13th, 2007, 06:37 PM

Memories flooding back...there was a place near paddington station where, having waited the prescribed time (about 1/2 a hour if there was no-one else, as I recall), I was asked the leading question "Are you interested in something harder?". It was daft that you had to wait the time, peering at censored covers until the guy in the shop decided that you were bona-fide. I was a student at the time, and would hardly have passed for a copper! Once, having paid a small fortune for a hard mag' at the shop, I was on my way, in a hurry to catch a train, and tried to jump the 1/2 hour bollocks...the guy wasn't having any of it..."I'm terribly sorry sir, y0ou must be mistaken...we don't sell hard-core pornographic material here...it's illegal, don't you know?!"

isambard1803 · December 13th, 2007, 06:58 PM

For those interested in the matter, Dave Taylor's excellent Melon Farmers anti-censorship web site www.melonfarmers.co.uk has a lot of stuff in the archives. Perhaps the nastiest feature of the old regime is that an unfortunate woman from South Wales was sent to jail for three months on 7th July 2000 for distributing some catalogues for pretty harmless porn. By the time she got out, even allowing for maximum remission, the BBFC had announced that it would start to certificate such stuff at R18.

broxyman · December 13th, 2007, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by munki

Memories flooding back...there was a place near paddington station where, having waited the prescribed time (about 1/2 a hour if there was no-one else, as I recall), I was asked the leading question "Are you interested in something harder?". It was daft that you had to wait the time, peering at censored covers until the guy in the shop decided that you were bona-fide. I was a student at the time, and would hardly have passed for a copper! Once, having paid a small fortune for a hard mag' at the shop, I was on my way, in a hurry to catch a train, and tried to jump the 1/2 hour bollocks...the guy wasn't having any of it..."I'm terribly sorry sir, y0ou must be mistaken...we don't sell hard-core pornographic material here...it's illegal, don't you know?!"

Wonder if it was the same Paddington shop I was browsing in when the police burst in and raided the place. They closed the shop, and went into the back room to find where the hard stuff was hidden. There were 2 or 3 customers in there, including me. They gave us all a cursory search, and found, in my case, a Color Climax mag. Possession perfectly legal of course, then as now, but illegal then to sell. They asked where I'd got it, I told them it was from another shop (which it was) and that was that, for me at any rate.

What a ridiculous waste of police time it all was.

thebadguy · December 13th, 2007, 08:49 PM

Yeh and the coppers used to take anything they confescated home or share em out amongst themselves!

Albert Mudat · December 13th, 2007, 09:16 PM

being on the other side of the Channel your stories gave me shivers (really). Quite ironic to think that a female P.M. could let a man starve to death (Bobby Sands) and be offended by a hard dick or Benny Hill's angels on TV.
Double standards of obscenity imho!
Human nature...

Albert Mudat · December 13th, 2007, 09:19 PM

In other words : sex drive is bad, violent impulses towards another country (say Argentina) are good. Isn't it exactly what Orwell described in "1984"?

**Mr.Bungle** · December 13th, 2007, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by broxyman

The floors were always sticky because most people in the UK had never seen hardcore porn before at that time.

They might not of seen any hardcore before, but surely they were familiar with tissues?

December 13th, 2007, 02:25 PM	#1
broxyman Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 193 Thanks: 6,521 Thanked 2,002 Times in 178 Posts	Porn in the UK before it got legal - remember? Anyone else remember the bad (or maybe good?) old days in the UK when all 'hardcore' porn was illegal? Up until 2001 or so the only way to get anything other than softcore porn was from abroad (illegal to import) or 'under the counter'. Remember the scruffy unpleasant little magazine shops in Soho and Paddington? The password phrases you needed? Like "Have you got any Scans?" or "Have you got anything harder?". There was always a little room hidden away at the back where the more discerning customers were shown a box of Private magazines, or Color Climax, or similar, all specially brought in from Holland and sold at maybe £25 a copy - around £150 in today's terms! There might be a copy or two of Sex Bizarre, but that was even more sought after and would cost even more. You could exchange them and get half back by way of a credit against another one, of course, but hardcore was still beyond the reach of most people. Then came the porno cabins, where for 50p you could watch a couple of minutes of real hardcore from one of the Color Climax loops - highly illegal, but the police turned a blind eye for various reasons. The floors were always sticky because most people in the UK had never seen hardcore porn before at that time. Respectable business men used to go there after work, and do their best to bring themselves off for just one 50p coin before catching the train home to the wife, the children and suburbia. Never before had 50p brought so much pleasure - the chance to masturbate on the floor of some seedy cabin in Soho, watching a pretty young Scandinavian porn model actually being fucked for real!

December 13th, 2007, 04:17 PM	#3
thebadguy Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 372 Thanks: 4,935 Thanked 8,247 Times in 347 Posts	Yeh i recall it - all those dodgy back of the paper adverts when all you were buying was the edited versions __________________ Check out my Newspaper Scan Thread on VEF To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

December 13th, 2007, 06:37 PM	#4
munki Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 4 Thanks: 315 Thanked 14 Times in 2 Posts	I rmemeber! Memories flooding back...there was a place near paddington station where, having waited the prescribed time (about 1/2 a hour if there was no-one else, as I recall), I was asked the leading question "Are you interested in something harder?". It was daft that you had to wait the time, peering at censored covers until the guy in the shop decided that you were bona-fide. I was a student at the time, and would hardly have passed for a copper! Once, having paid a small fortune for a hard mag' at the shop, I was on my way, in a hurry to catch a train, and tried to jump the 1/2 hour bollocks...the guy wasn't having any of it..."I'm terribly sorry sir, y0ou must be mistaken...we don't sell hard-core pornographic material here...it's illegal, don't you know?!"

December 13th, 2007, 08:49 PM	#7
thebadguy Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 372 Thanks: 4,935 Thanked 8,247 Times in 347 Posts	Yeh and the coppers used to take anything they confescated home or share em out amongst themselves! __________________ Check out my Newspaper Scan Thread on VEF To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

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December 13th, 2007, 03:42 PM	#2
pooklo Junior Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 7 Thanks: 42 Thanked 159 Times in 6 Posts	Yup it was rubbish in the 80s and 90s. Often the best bit of a UK mag was the ads at the back, where they would print tiny thumbnails of "hardcore mags" for sale to unsuspecting suckers. They would put black dots over the offending bits, but even the thought that it was the proper thing was cool. Much better than the limp pretend hardcore we had to suffer. Thing is, hardcore mags were very very rare in the UK, but videos were common, because they could be duplicated, and looked inconspicious. I can still remember the first day I bought a modem in 1997. 14.4 baud. Searched for porn. HOLY CRAP! Took about an hour to download 20 images. Then 20 more the next day. Happy days.

December 13th, 2007, 06:58 PM	#5
isambard1803 Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 122 Thanks: 2,926 Thanked 826 Times in 106 Posts	For those interested in the matter, Dave Taylor's excellent Melon Farmers anti-censorship web site www.melonfarmers.co.uk has a lot of stuff in the archives. Perhaps the nastiest feature of the old regime is that an unfortunate woman from South Wales was sent to jail for three months on 7th July 2000 for distributing some catalogues for pretty harmless porn. By the time she got out, even allowing for maximum remission, the BBFC had announced that it would start to certificate such stuff at R18.

December 13th, 2007, 09:16 PM	#8
Albert Mudat Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 471 Thanks: 14,107 Thanked 3,096 Times in 384 Posts	being on the other side of the Channel your stories gave me shivers (really). Quite ironic to think that a female P.M. could let a man starve to death (Bobby Sands) and be offended by a hard dick or Benny Hill's angels on TV. Double standards of obscenity imho! Human nature...

December 13th, 2007, 09:19 PM	#9
Albert Mudat Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 471 Thanks: 14,107 Thanked 3,096 Times in 384 Posts	In other words : sex drive is bad, violent impulses towards another country (say Argentina) are good. Isn't it exactly what Orwell described in "1984"?