some interesting photos

When I saw this picture I recognized it as 61 Dean Street, a walk up in Soho. It was the only walk up with a big yellow sign saying MODEL. This sign is no longer there. I have written about 61 Dean Street before. The police tried to close it down but failed to do so.

The Home Office are using this picture as part of a campaign to discourage men from using prostitutes. It's ridiculous because a man isn't going to be convicted of rape if he goes to 61 Dean Street, or anywhere else that I know of. He's not even going to be convicted under the new law that was introduced last year. Nobody has been convicted under this law. All this campaign and this law will achieve is to scare off the best customers - the more law abiding ones - of the women who work in these places.

A couple of days ago Clayton Littlewood was back on the JoAnne Good show on BBC London. He talked again about how he got to know the women working at 61 Dean Street. He had a shop underneath. He knows that they are not coerced. I found this photo here.

When I saw this picture I recognignized it as one of the walk ups in Greek Street. I found it on the POPPY project site. This walk up could be one of the sleaziest in Soho. Nice shade of blue though. I have written about it before.

What amuses me is that there is nothing on the web page to say that this is a walk up (or brothel, as they are often termed). I'm sure there are some people who look at this page and think that this is the entrance to the offices of the POPPY Project itself.

This was an image that could be seen as part of a series of images (some of them apparently subliminal) at the beginning of each of the 3 episodes of the C4 television documentary 'The Hunt for Britain's Sex Traffickers'. It is used by a few anti-trafficking blogs or sites. It is intended to get people to think that vulnerable girls are being treated like meat. The sex industry needs 'fresh meat' so that it can continue, punters can be kept happy and pimps can continue to make profits. This kind of propaganda is not going to help people to understand the issues and come to sensible decisions about how to help those women who are genuinely trafficked.

61 Dean Street

I like to listen to JoAnne Good on BBC Radio London at night. She is familiar with Soho and says she is fascinated by the sex workers. She said several days ago that she was sitting having her lunch outside Beatroot in Berwick Street looking at the doorway of one of the walk ups. She said she saw a woman go in who looked as if she was 25 stone. However, I don't think any of the sex workers are that big so maybe it was one of the maids.

A couple of nights ago she mentioned this again and she did a very interesting interview with Clayton Littlewood who lived and worked in Soho. He had a shop underneath the walk up at 61 Dean Street. He got to know the girls there and he helped to stop the place from being closed down.

Clayton said that he is sure none of the women working in Soho are coerced. JoAnne said that she was glad he said that because "every time I talk about prostitution people go on about - you know - the slave trade and how they're forced to do this". Clayton has had a blog on Soho for some time and also has a book, and now a play. The book is called 'Dirty White Boy: Tales of Soho'. Clayton is on myspace and has his blog there.

In one of my recent postings I said that I was wondering if the walk up at 26 Wardour Street was the one that the police tried to close down. I had remembered reading something in a newspaper about a 'brothel' where a vicar had defended the establishment in court, saying that there was no drug dealing near there or any form of anti social behaviour. It's not 26 Wardour Street, it is 61 Dean Street.

Juliet Peston is another one who has defended the place, and she has told of her involvement here. She has worked in Soho as a chef and has concerns about the welfare of the sex workers she has met. She is also concerned about the tactics that the police are using to get what they want.

I have not been to 61 Dean Street but I did notice that the big sign saying MODEL outside the doorway has been taken down. I went into Soho in the afternoon of the first of April and I noticed that the door was closed. I hope that the police have not managed to close it. I will keep you informed.

JoAnne also interviewed the two men behind Hummus Brothers. This is a new restaurant that sells hummus and other stuff. I am familiar with the one in Wardour Street in Soho. What I like about them is that you can get a meal there for £2.80. So when I am short of money I go in there. I have a small bowl of hummus with chickpeas. It has olive oil, tahini, and cumin and comes with hot pitta bread. They do different things apart from chickpeas with the hummus and they also do salads. In the summer I want to try their home-made lemonade.

I did go to Whole Foods Market in Brewer Street in Soho. This is a new store like their bigger store on High Street Kensington. I used to have a tub of salad. I would have chicken and salmon and different salad things. However, they seem to have stopped having balsamic vinegar pickled onions. So I go elsewhere.

Beatroot restaurant on Berwick Street Soho is good for cheap food. So is Stockpot. One of my favourite places to eat is somewhere in Holborn. There is a Hummus Brothers in Holborn which didn't get mentioned in JoAnne's interview although the new one in the City did. But the place that I like to go is the café at the Mary Ward Centre in Holborn. This is an adult education college where I studied once. The café is only open during term time and is vegetarian.

They do a wide range of inexpensive items from the Mediterranean region. Things like pasta and couscous. It's quite healthy. It seems to be run by an Italian family. Sometimes there is a beautiful older Italian woman there.

It's very convenient for me because I get my bus from near there back to south London. The toilets there are good too.