Comments on: The Strippers of Shoreditch

By: MH

MH — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 01:15:59 +0000

I spent many evenings in the nineties in the pubs of Shoreditch, when it was still dark and slightly foreboding. Lovely. Almost as when Jack the Ripper stalked it. I’m grateful to have seen it before it got ‘developed’. Likewise Hoxton, birthplace of the Krays.

In those days the only females you’d see on the streets after dark were strippers or hookers. No bright young things from new media companies.

I would have known most, if not all, of the girls in this book, and they were nice girls doing a slightly unusual job. It all went wrong when places like Browns introduced stages and poles (probably at the insistence of politically-correct Hackney council) and the smaller pubs closed down.

Some of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever known were naked at my feet in pubs full of character and history, and they were treated with respect, as they deserved to be. They were in charge.

By: Frank Bodfrey

Frank Bodfrey — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:21:32 +0000

Browns is my favourite establishment.

However, I have to admit, despite having some munters, rainbow sports bar floats my boat aswell.

Thanks

By: hopflower

hopflower — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:48:50 +0000

It is still seedy.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:18:47 +0000

Magic. I will be emailing Lara for a copy.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 09:27:28 +0000

Just stumbled across this excellent article. Many of thes epubs are still going strong. The girls are now almost exclusively Brazilian or Romanian but I can honestly say that the atmosphere is still friendly and it’s a fantastic (if expensive) way to while away a few hours.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:23:56 +0000

A fabulous article and it brings back many happy memories. My first experience was watching the go-go dancers, as they then called them, on Friday lunchtimes at the Leisure Lounge under the BT building in Holborn. I worked in Hatton Garden and we would often go to the Griffin on Clerkenwell Road for a lunchtime pint and sandwich. Often there were only a handful of people in there and the girls would stand at the bar with us having a chat before breaking off to do a performance. Quite surreal really and great fun.

My favourite was Ye Olde Axe; it was quite a rough place but had such character. Give me a night watching the strippers in there over dinner at Claridges any day!

The girls back then were mainly English and there was a real connection between them and the men and there was rarely any trouble to speak of and it just didn’t feel seedy as the article says. I’ve tried explaining this to girlfriends over the years, but they just don’t get it.

Things started to go downhill when the table dancing stuff started and it became much more lucrative and hence started to attract different types of girls (mainly foreign) and the atmosphere changed. The new girls treated it just as a money collecting exercise and the rapport between the strippers and the men was lost.

Great days.

By: JohnB

JohnB — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:49:53 +0000

I remember in the late ’70s, a handful of visits to Browns (I think it wasn’t called a ‘club’ then, it was a pub) and lunchtimes at The Bluecoat Boy (I think it’s long gone) down Bishopsgate before Worship Street . Entertainment by girls who had everything well under control and had a laugh themselves. I never saw a hint of aggression or bad behaviour from the crowd, as Ms. Clifton says, passive respect from the crowd (coupled with a little nervousness, if the girl might be heading in their direction during a routine) was the order of the day. I hope it’s the same today. In any case,any woman who has the self-possession and assuredness to display herself in such places for money doesn’t deserve post-Victorian ‘moral majority’ types looking down their noses at her. Of course, the same can be said for anyone who does a job that most people wouldn’t dream of, from refuse collection to tax collection. I say hats off to them for doing what it takes. Yes, I’d marry one (not a tax collector….). 🙂