UK Sex Shop News

An investigation is underway after a motorbike was allegedly set alight, causing damage to a controversial sex shop in Dublin.

The blaze broke out on James' St outside Sweet Sensations which had previously come under fire for a large picture in the window of a woman posing in red lingerie. Last October around 10-15 people demonstrated outside the shop which has been open for over twenty years.

The front of the shop, which is made of wood, was damaged during the incident.

Exeter' Private Shop has closed down after trading for 30 years.

The store manager Steve, who has worked at the adult shop for 31 years said he is sad to see the shop close and that it's the end of an era.

Its closure means that Simply Pleasure on Sidwell Street is the last remaining sex shop in the city.

Meanwhile in Bristol, the gay sex shop chain Prowler has opened a store inside Simply Pleasure sex shop . Prowler specialises in gay sex toys, underwear, clothing and accessories, as well as DVDs, books and calendars.

The Bristol branch has opened on the top floor of general sex shop Simply Pleasure on Bond Street. It is being managed by former customer Cameron Reid, who said he was inspired to help bring the Prowler brand to Bristol after realising a huge proportion of Simply Pleasure was just unused, wasted space.

Pulse and Cocktails opened its latest store just off the A12 at Rivenhall near Witham, Essex, in April.

Now the business has applied for a Sex Establishment Licence from Braintree Council which will allow it to increase the variety of its stock - adding R18 adult films and more choice of adult toys.

Graham Kidd, director of Pulse and Cocktails, has written to Braintree Council in support of the licensing application saying:

We have an excellent relationship with all the authorities where we trade and an equally good relationship with businesses, residents and other associations who are our neighbours, objections to licence renewals are non-existent.

Our stores and our customers have a positive impact all round. We provide employment within the area and other businesses and services benefit from our custom.

As we have been running our business for over 20 years with stores that all have a Sex Establishment Licence, it is important that this store is also licensed to enable us to operate it in the same way.

The external appearance and layout of the store will not change with a licence, the only fundamental change will be the amount and variety of stock available which will include the addition of adult films and an increase in the choice of adult toys.

The business also wants to screen short DVD film trailers in store.

One objection has been raised in relation to the application since it was submitted in May.

Update: Licensed

21st July 2018. See  article from braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk

Pulse and Cocktails, located just off the A12 at Rivenhall, had its proposals unanimously approved by Braintree Council s licensing committee on Wednesday (July 18) evening.

A spokesman for Pulse and Cocktails said: "

The new store will be fully stocked with the new exciting products and DVD's from Monday, July 23, open 7 days, welcoming customers new and old.

Researchers from the University of Kent and Middlesex University have said that Soho is under threat from gentrification and corporatisation that threatens to rob it of what makes it so special.

Their study explains how the area is being sanitised with the number of licensed sex shops in the area declining from more than 50 to just 12. These are slowly being concentrated in just a small area and almost all such venues in Soho are now located within a small half-a-mile block.

The process of gentrification in this area has further marginalised already vulnerable groups (including homeless populations and sex workers) and the sanitisation of the area means that many populations who have lived and worked in this area for generations will no longer be able to part of the Soho community.

A well known gay fetish wear shop in Islington will soon be opening a branch in Soho. Regulation has been grated a sex shop licence by Westminster Council to open in Bateman Street.

There a few local objections but these didn't add up to much with eg someone citing proximity to churches when the churches themselves had not objected.

The Metropolitan Police initially opposed the application. However, PC Caroline Cockshull withdrew her submission after the sex shop agreed to install CCTV at its entries and exits.

Proprietor Peter Cooke told the sub-committee the shop primarily sold mainly leather and latex apparel aimed at gay men, and would not sell restricted magazines or DVDs.

He told the committee that his fetish-wear market had expanded over the years to a broader demographic, including women. We're not what many would perhaps call a traditional sex shop, he said.

The number of existing shops in the area was noted as a concern by te objectors but council policy has a cap of 16, and there are currently only 10.

Licensing committee chairman Melyvn Caplan said the sub-committee saw no issue with the application, granting the licence but imposing earlier closing hours to allay neighbours' concerns.

An outdoor poster ad for Silks of Glasgow, a lingerie store, seen in December 2017, featured an image of a woman in lingerie, leaning forward to emphasise her bust. The image poster featured the woman's body only and not her head or face. The image was accompanied by the text Tease the Season.

A complainant, who believed the ad objectified women, objected that it was offensive.

Silks did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

ASA Assessment: Complaint upheld

The ASA was concerned by Silk's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code rule(Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.

The purpose of the ad was to advertise a collection of lingerie and therefore we considered it was reasonable to feature a woman in limited amounts of clothing. The ad did not show the model's face, and focused only on her body which was posed leaning over in a way that emphasised her chest. The ASA considered that the model's pose and the image, combined with the text Tease the season, was sexually suggestive. We considered that, by focusing entirely on the model's body without showing her head, and in the context of a sexually suggestive pose and byline, the image invited viewers to view the woman's body as a sexual object.

For those reasons, we considered that the ad objectified women and we therefore considered that it was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Silks not to use ads that objectified women and that were therefore likely to cause serious or widespread offence. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.

The Adult Shop is located in Digbeth in Birmingham's city centre opposite the coach station.

The shop made the local news when an advertising hoarding above the shop hosted a poster congratulating the royal couple.

The prominent, but miserable, local MP Jess Phillips felt that somehow it was 'inappropriate' for a sex shop to be so close to a poster congratulating Harry and Megan. She whinged in a tweet:

My husband just sent me this picture. Birmingham's least fitting tribute.

Employees at shop pointed out that they had no control over the choice of posters appearing in the advertising space.

Rotherham Council has approved plans for an extension to the head office of Pulse & Cocktails at the Canklow site.

The chain opened its first store in 1997 and has expanded to over 20 stores across the UK.

The current flagship store opened at Canklow in 2003 where the 10,000 sq ft premises also includes the firm's head office and storage area. With 7,000 sq ft of retail space and selling 8,000 different products, the Rotherham branch was reported to be the biggest sex shop in Europe when it opened, and the second biggest in the world after the Hustler store in California.

Now a planning application has been approved that will enable the company to add an additional 4,300 sq ft of floor space for warehousing and offices.

One of the biggest sex shops in Essex has opened its doors on the A12 near Chelmsford and Witham .

Store manager Hannah beamed:

A lot of thought has gone into the design and the products we offer. It's spacious and modern and welcoming. Our lingerie is classy and we have a real mixture of products and toys to suit all tastes. You can go from a simple tickler to something more fetish.

New employees at Pulse & Cocktails have a whole month's training before they can start work in the stores. They learn about every single product in detail and about how to deliver the best customer service in an adult store.

An adult superstore is opening in Essex around 23rd April 2018.

It is located on just off the A12 northbound at Rivenhall End, near Witham in Essex. The store used to be home to Empire Diner.

A spokesman for Pulse and Cocktails said:

We are delighted to be opening in Essex, in the time we have been in the area getting the store ready we have found the local people to be amazing, really friendly and helpful and we have only received words of encouragement from everyone we have come into contact with.  We cannot wait to open the doors and hope the store is a successful as our other ex-Little Chefs.

The Rivenhall store will become the 24th shop in the Pulse and Cocktails chain.

Lap dancing clubs, sex shops and sex cinemas numbers in England have fallen by a third in the past five years.

The BBC England Data Unit sent Freedom of Information requests to all local councils responsible for issuing sex establishment licences with 281 out of 327 responding to how many they had issued. The total number of ex establishment licences issued by councils dropped from 386 in 2013 to 256 in 2018.

The figures reveal the number of sex establishment licences rose between 2011 and 2013 as lap dancing clubs had to apply for new licences after the introduction of the Police and Crime Act 2009. Previously, such clubs had been regulated under laws designed to control pubs and nightclubs. Since 2013 the number of active licences has declined every year.

The data supplied by local authorities shows no major city in England has seen an increase in the number of sexual entertainment licences since 2013.

They also suggest the number of active licences has fallen by two-thirds in London. The local authority area of Westminster which takes in Soho, an area synonymous with the British sex industry, has seen the biggest fall in the number of active licences, from 31 in 2013 to four at the beginning of 2018.

A local chain of sex shops has been saved after collapsing into administration.

Warrington-based Nice'N'Naughty Leisurewear, which has 10 stores across the country, suffered cash flow problems after battling tough competition.

But all 26 jobs at the business were saved after the business was sold to new company Nice N Naughty (UK). The new company is controlled by Simon Prescott, who was director of the previous Nice N Naughty Leisurewear.

In 2016 there was a decrease in the number of explicit pornographic works submitted to the BBFC. The 476 works in 2016 represents an a 19% decrease on 2015, ending the trend of year-on-year increases that had taken place over the preceding three years.

The proportion of R18works subject to cuts in 2016 was 35%, an increase of 22% over the previous year. This continues to reflect the BBFC's strict policies on material which combines sexual detail with activity which is illegal, harmful, abusive or involves a lack of consent or the infliction of pain or injury. [The BBFC have misleadingly omitted  some of the more trivial reasons for cuts from this list, such as use of the word teen, dialogue references to incest, squirting and gagging].