sex workers speak out against raids

If you want to know more about what happened during the raids last month sex workers have spoken about their experiences. Sex workers were dragged out onto the streets in their underwear in the full glare of a hostile media. Despite their protestations of not being trafficked some of them were shipped off to 'rescue centres'. Some of them had their earnings taken away from them, their homes were searched even if their children were there, and they were persuaded to accept cautions which are an admission of guilt.

The West End Extra newspaper has had a number of articles about the raids. There was a debate in St Anne's Church recently where sex workers, residents and business owners could speak their minds. The raids were initially said to be to do with stolen goods but little evidence was found of that. Instead police were trying to find evidence of sex workers being controlled by a third party.

"Following the raids, police sought to close down 20 brothels, but they have been criticised for failing to provide evidence that the premises were linked to the handling of stolen goods. 

Instead a district judge issued “brothel closure orders” after police claimed to have found evidence that women in the flats were controlled by an unknown third party, which contravenes prostitution laws."

The issues that the police have used to try to justify these raids are property stolen from tourists, shoplifted items and drugs. They found little evidence of any of these problems during the raids. There also seems to be an issue with the people who the sex workers pay their rent to. Although Soho Estates own the freehold of many of the flats there is a 'black economy of anonymous landlords'.

Rupert Everett has written an article for the Guardian newspaper where he reports what sex workers have said in court and he confirms that police were trying to find evidence of the mysterious 'third party'.

my best ever stunning spa girl

Yesterday I had a walk around Chinatown and Soho. I didn't intend to spend any money but I ended up spending £50. It might have been the best £50 I've ever spent. In Chinatown there's a doorway where you can often see a woman standing there asking men if they would like a massage. I once saw a very pretty, very young-looking, very smiley girl standing there. Every time I passed the doorway I looked to see if she was there. For many months I didn't see her again.

Yesterday she was there. I made a beeline for her and asked her how much it costs for a massage. She told me £30 for a half-hour and when I looked uncertain she said £25. I paid the money at reception up the stairs and she led me into a small room. When I was naked face down on the massage table she asked me if I wanted a medium or hard massage and if I wanted her to use oil. The room was nice and warm.

prettier than this

Then it was time for me to turn over. Now I could get a good look at her. I think she really is the prettiest girl anywhere I've been to. Prettier than the Thai woman at Asian Touch in Shaftesbury Avenue who someone described as an 'absolutely stunning girl' (although I didn't get a good look at her because the room was so dark). Prettier than Claire who worked at Everwell in Charing Cross Road. Prettier than Lisa who works from a flat near St James's Park.

I asked her how old she is and like a lot of these girls she asked me how old I think she is. I told her 18 and she said she is 25 years old. She asked me if I wanted her to masturbate me but I wasn't in the mood for that. I knew what I wanted. I told her I wanted to see her naked. I said I would give her £20 if she took her clothes off. She wanted more money to begin with but then agreed to do it. She turned the lights lower but I said I wanted the lights brighter. They like to keep the lights low because they look more attractive that way but I wanted to see everything.

She took her top off and her bra and pulled her pants down. She had a nice body with bigger breasts and less skinny than Lisa who I saw not long ago. She let me touch her breasts and her bottom and she was quite smiley and affectionate. I asked her if she did oral sex and she said she doesn't do that, just hand relief. Maybe if I become a regular client of hers I might be able to persuade her to have a go.

I can't tell you her name or where she works because I'm not sure if she would like that. Unlike the sex workers in the nearby walk ups they don't usually want the publicity. I will say that the name of the establishment has the word 'spa' in it. I'm not sure if it is a spa, on their website it says they do beauty treatments but that might be their other branch in the East End.

Last month I went to a spa for the first time. Someone contacted me by email and asked if I had ever been to this place in Balham. I had walked past it a few times and often wondered if anything sexual went on. When he said they do hand relief there I wanted to go. It turned out to be cheaper than I expected and the most luxurious place I have ever been to. More luxurious than Gin Sen near Russell Square where I went a few times and managed to get hand relief just once. More luxurious than Zen in Notting Hill Gate where I went once and wasn't offered anything sexual.

I paid £25 for a half-hour massage and also got to use their sauna, steam room and shower. The masseur was a young woman from Slovakia who didn't offer me anything sexual. I wasn't really looking for that anyway. I have the name of a woman who works there who does offer hand relief and what days she works so next time I go there I'll know who to ask for.

When I was in the steam room I thought that steam rooms could be very sexy places. I imagined two naked Chinese girls coming towards me through the steam smiling and giggling.

Soon after the police raids last month in Soho I went to have a look around. About half of the walk ups were closed. I decided I wanted to see one of the sex workers because I didn't know how long they would be there. I ended up in Little Newport Street with a lovely Thai lady called Holly. I told her I wanted to look and her pussy and wank myself. She suggested that instead of me taking my clothes off and getting onto the bed with her, which is what I have done in the past, I just unzip myself and sit on a chair next to the bed while she shows me her pussy. It was very pleasant doing it that way. I got a good view. When my 10 minutes were up she stood up in front of me just a few inches away so I got to appreciate her lovely figure.

In the last few days two of the walk ups that had been closed are now open again. The one in Dean Street and the one in Tisbury Court. I noticed that in both of them are signs saying No Touts No Sellers. They don't want the drug addicts from the street trying to sell them shoplifted goods. That's what got them into trouble with the police and brought about the raids. Nothing to do with rescuing trafficked women and nothing to do with goods stolen from tourists. I have been going to Soho for years and I have never had anything stolen from me.

police raided walk ups on Wednesday

The police have raided a number of places in Soho on Wednesday night, some of them walk ups (called 'brothels' in newspaper reports). A number of the walk ups have been closed, I don't know if this is permanently. This article said "After the raids last night a dozen women, mostly from eastern Europe, working in squalid rooms, were taken to safe locations where they will be questioned. Police believe that some were trafficked into the country and forced into prostitution".

I don't believe that the women were trafficked or coerced, and I don't believe that the police believe that. They're not trying to help these women at all. As for 'squalid rooms', someone photographed one of the rooms recently, at the request of the people working there, and I wouldn't describe it as squalid. You can see the photos below, they are typical of the bedrooms of Soho walk ups. The flat is 2 Greens Court, upper flat. I don't know if this is one of the ones that has been closed, I'm going to have a look around tomorrow.

it looks as if they have DVDs here



certainly they have lots of uniforms here
I don't know what that is next to the fire extinguisher

disappearing Soho

card in walk up at 70A Berwick Street Soho

I took this photo on Tuesday this week. It is a card that was on display in the hallway of the walk up at 70A Berwick Street in Soho. It shows one of the two women who were working there that day, informing potential customers what she is like. Yesterday I went back and there were no cards there. From what I can gather the police have insisted that all these cards in Soho are removed.

This card was not visible from the street, you would have to walk through the open doorway and along the hallway to see them. I have been told that the ones that used to be visible from the street at a lot of the walk ups went a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what the legal basis of this police action is, it seems that they are making more and more demands. No one knows where it will end. What you see in Soho could be gone forever the next time you look.

I thought I'd found some street girls

Last month I went to Liverpool again. I didn't look for any sex workers this time. After listening to a radio programme about St James Gardens I wanted to see it again. I used to go there sometimes when I was living in Liverpool in the 1980s. It is described as 'once a derelict no-go area' formerly frequented by drug addicts. This surprised me because when I used to go there I didn't notice any drug addicts or syringes, even though I keep an eye open for that sort of thing.

I only ever saw one prostitute there. Above the gardens is Hope Street which was the red light area. I was riding my bike along Hope Street one day on my way to the city centre. I saw one woman waiting on the street corner. I had never seen her before, she was beautiful. I went into St James Gardens and sat on a park bench. After a while she walked past me with a man, giving me a big smile. I wanted to see where they were going so I followed them. When I found them they were hugging. She saw me and I made a hasty retreat, although the man was a lot smaller than me he might have got aggressive. I never saw her again.

After I came back to London I saw a TV programme that said there were drug addicts and prostitutes causing problems for residents near Brick Lane. There used to be a street in east London called Flower and Dean Street. It was a notorious slum and associated with theft and prostitution. A couple of Jack the Ripper's victims came from there. Today it no longer exists, but there is a Flower and Dean Walk.

I had a look round this area, and where Flower and Dean Walk meets Brick Lane I saw several women standing around. I felt sure that they were street girls. None of them propositioned me, but these days street girls have to be very wary of the police. The only way I could have found out for sure is if I had gone up to them and talked to them. I wasn't interested in doing anything with them though. Now I think they were probably just people waiting outside the medical centre for homeless people.

I thought it might be possible that women have been waiting on that spot since Victorian times. It's an area with an interesting history, today it is a Bengali area but before that it was a Jewish area. There are two shops where they sell salt beef, a Jewish food. When I'm in the area I have salt beef in a bagel with mustard and a cup of tea.

On Channel 4 last month there was an interesting documentary called The Fried Chicken Shop. The most interesting character in it was Jessie, the Clapham Tranny. Especially interesting for me because I remember seeing her on Tooting Bec Common years ago. She used to hang out with the street girls there waiting for men to turn up.

Some people think that Jessie is bad tempered because she got irritated with a drunk girl who she was talking to. The girl kept asking the same question over and over again when Jessie had said she didn't want to talk about that. I can understand why she became irritated. It does seem that drunk people tend to ask the same question over and over again even when someone clearly doesn't want to discuss a personal issue. In another part of the documentary a drunk man kept asking one of the shop staff a personal question, to the increasing irritation of the staff. Later the drunk man tried to climb over the counter and was taken away by the police.


Jessie, the Clapham Tranny

In all three cases, with St James Gardens, Flower and Dean Walk and Tooting Bec Common, people living nearby have complained about drug addicts and/or prostitutes. In some cases people will have exagerated the problem because they wanted to get rid of the street girls. I know that to have been true of Tooting Bec Common. From what people were saying, anyone would think that Tooting Bec Common was strewn with drugs paraphernalia and used condoms. The truth was that there were no needles or syringes and the used condoms were only on one part of the Common in the undergrowth where it would have been difficult to find them. I don't know what all the fuss was about, it's not as if a labrador choked on one.

protest as 26 Romilly Street is closed

A protest was organized yesterday against the closure of one of the walk ups in Soho, 26 Romilly Street. There is a Guardian newspaper article about it and a post on the Time Out London blog. There is also a video on the Guardian story where you can hear a sex worker and a maid talking about how they feel about the attitude of the police.

One of the maids at the walk up stated "The police have completely changed, they've dragged customers naked out of bed, searched the flat – the girls are scared, they are not criminals. As far as I have understood one girl and one maid is not illegal, it's not a brothel."

The police were putting pressure on the property owner Soho Estates to evict the sex workers. Sex workers in Peter Street near Walker's Court have been told they will be evicted in January. The police closed 61 Dean Street, and more recently all 3 walk ups in Lisle Street, and failed. However, putting pressure on the property owner to evict sex workers might well succeed where other methods have failed in the past.

When sex worker Lizzie Valad was evicted from her flat she started working at King's Cross and ended up being murdered by Camden Ripper Anthony Hardy. The walk ups in Soho are safe places for women to work. Sex workers will be at greater risk of violence if they are evicted.

protest in Soho yesterday outside the offices of Soho Estates

my best Chinese massage ever

Someone left a comment on one of my posts asking if anyone had tried the flat near St James's Park run by a few Chinese students. He said they were advertising on Gumtree and elsewhere. This sounded intriguing to me. I couldn't find any of their adverts but someone commented that he'd been there, thought they were very good, and gave their phone number. It is 07923247974.

This isn't one of the Chinese medical establishments, it is a private flat. You have to phone them and make an appointment. I did this earlier this month. The flat is in a road just off Strutton Ground near St James's Park and Victoria. Strutton Ground has a street market and is a good place to buy something to eat for lunch.

I decided to have a half hour massage and paid £30. The girl was very pretty and was wearing a short summery dress. The massage took place in a pleasant room.

this is the room where I had my massage

I asked her how much hand relief would cost, and she said £30. She said that she does body-to-body for £50. I told her I would like hand relief so she put some oil on my cock and started massaging it. I was starting to get an erection but it was taking quite a while. I said "Could you take your dress off for me, please?". I don't think she normally takes her dress off unless she is doing body-to-body. She said that she would take her dress off for another £10.

She removed her dress and then her bra. I could see even better now just how skinny she is. She has tiny breasts, but that is something you expect from a Chinese girl, that is one of their charms. She told me I could touch her if I wanted. When she started wanking me again I got a strong erection. I needed to see her body to become fully aroused.

I asked her how old she is and she asked me how old does she look. I said 18 or 20, and she told me she is in fact 23. I felt that I might be beginning to lose my erection, and I said "Could you pull your knickers down for me, please?". She seemed a bit reluctant at first, then pulled them half way down.

I looked at her pussy and the top of her thighs. She continued to wank me and before too long the sperm was shooting out of me. When it was all over, she asked me if I would like a shower. I said that I would, but that I wanted to give her the money first in case I forgot. We had agreed on £40, but I gave her £50 because I was so pleased with her.

£50 is what I would have given her if she had given me a body-to-body massage. I'm glad that I didn't ask for body-to-body though. It was more exciting for me that during the course of the massage she started fully clothed then removed more and more clothing until she was effectively naked. The physical stimulation of her hands on my cock wasn't enough for me, I had to have that visual stimulation too. I paid £80 altogether, and it was worth it.

She took me to the bathroom and turned on the shower for me. While in the shower I looked out of the window to see what the noise was. There was building work going on. There is a lot of building work going on in that area. The sound was a bit off-putting during the massage, but not too much.

Before I went she said she hoped to see me again. I asked what days she does and she said Monday to Friday, but she's not always there, she lives not far away and she can come in specially if I want her. The other girl there is supposed to be just as nice, I might try her next.

I don't think they really are students. I think they are the same as the women in the Chinese medical establishments, but they have started up on their own. In fact, I think that I have seen this girl before. I think that she and her friend worked at Forever Health at 8 Windmill Street near Tottenham Court Road. I am glad if they have really set themselves up on their own, if they can make more money for themselves and organise themselves. I would much rather pay for people who work independently instead of a big company.