Well, it's not so much his use of prostitutes as his gross hypocrisy in filing criminal charges against others for doing the self-same thing. If his public position and actions had been to give leniency to Johns, then I suspect there wouldn't be this kind of outrage. No one would care if Richard Simmons was revealed to be a homosexual, but all would care if it was John Ashcroft.

Last edited by Fogey (2008-03-12 21:33:00)

Working in Soho we used to randomly hand out Christmas cards to the working girls who worked the Berwick Street market. It used to make their day.
We knew a few from the pubs and they were fascinating people - My abiding memory of them is how strict they were and what store they placed in 'having standards'. If you said the wrong thing to them they were very unforgiving.
Later came the girls who worked the doors of the clip joints (that had been a male job previously as I recall). They all seemed to be foreign and they always had a learning curve in identifying the Soho locals from the punters up in town which we always enjoyed.

"What, with my back?" was always the best way to turn down their advances.

The Poland Street NCP car park (and to a lesser extent the Brewer Street & Windmill Street ones too) always had couples in cars parked up 'doing business' in those days. After a while you no longer registered them it was such an everyday thing.
The Poland Street NCP is a great short-cut between Poland & Marshall Streets and Marshall Street (Next to the Swimming Baths) had a block of Edwardian flats where Westminster council used to put their 'problem tennents' - Fantastic people who drank all day & used set fire to things by accident. We knew a few of them from the pubs too - they'd invite you back to theirs via the nearest shop and you'd sit eating toast and drinking neat spirits until the early hours. Very friendly people who really seemed to know how to live life. I doubt any of them lived past 50.

The biggest shop window for rent boys was the Burger King (used to be a Wimpy as I recall) overlooking Picadilly itself. I wonder if it still is?
The boys were always far more into drugs than drinking so we'd know them from the bars & clubs more than the pubs although the Queens Head pub was a favourite with them & they used to whore themselves nearby on those concrete bollards at the Picadilly end of Shaftesbury Avenue.

'B-3' would be the style of the bollards in question I think:

http://www.fsindustries.com/more_info/concrete_bollards/concrete_bollards.shtml

Most of the boys would just come up to town to whore themselves and then return to places like Surbiton for the rest of the time. Ditto the working girls - Many of them would commute too.

More expensive whores would work around the back of the Hilton in one of the old Mews there and then there was nearby Shepherd Market, although that was mainly over by my day.

All the major London Railway stations were centres of prostitution too with different stations catering for different punters both Gay & Straight. Various Tube stations had various scenes too - Especially Tottenham Court Road where all the druggies were, just under the Centre Point tower.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sznerchu/2200851663/

There's a book in all this.

It's dangerous to romanticise this world, but they were really interesting people who, however sad their back-stories were, always seemed to be having fun whenever you met them in Soho.

J.

There are so many things I need to learn about being an adult...what a smart thread.

*****

Poor Spitzie, he's just the latest whipping boy.
His real crime is getting caught.

for the $5k how long did one get?

A recenty divorced friend of mine- who has sworn off actuall reationships with women- but still wants to have sex with them now employs the services of a call girl at an hourly rate of £220 per hour (approx$440)-she is a nice looking girl and is willing to play the role of a mild dominatrix-( my friend likes to be spanked)- she visits him twice a week for between 1 and 2 hours per visit - he has never been happier.

Having said that his wife was a game girl - he met her when we were at university and one night after the Agric ball- he and I spit roasted her which was alot of fun for us all- I should point out to the bleeding heart liberals that we did not take advantage of a poor drunk girl-she initiated it.

Last edited by Voltaire's Bastard (2008-03-13 13:10:33)

Just been reading about the evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, I know It's old news to you lot across the pond but it didn't half make me chuckle...

Mr Monkey, what would be the minimum bid for an Indecent Proposal for Mrs Monkey?