Five locations that reveal an alternative London

In a new guide, travel publisher Herb Lester uncovers the London locations that reveal the capital’s saucy side.

VAUXHALL PLEASURE GARDENS 85 Albert Embankment, SE1 7TP

Where MI6 now stands, revellers once frolicked in one of the capital’s more infamous pleasure gardens. From the mid-17th century these parks were created for concerts, feasting and amorous encounters. Vauxhall gained a particular reputation for its dark walks, popular with couples seeking privacy and fertile ground for ladies of the night. Such was Vauxhall’s renown, it even enticed Casanova to try his luck at amore all’aperto.

 

THE SILVER CROSS 33 Whitehall, SW1A 2BX

Prior to opening as a pub in 1674, a licensed brothel operated on this site – and it could again. The licence granted by Charles I has never been revoked, which might cast their Dirty Dip burger in a rather different light.

The Silver Cross
The Silver Cross

 

LAIR OF THE BEAST 67-69 Chancery Lane, WC2A 1AF

Home of Aleister Crowley, dubbed by the British press The Wickedest Man In The World, and by his own mother as The Beast. An enthusiastic drug-user and writer of pornographic poetry, he is best known as an occultist and practitioner of sex magick, enticing to his sessions of “orgie and incantations” women, men and boys to indulge in marathons of sex and drugs. All good fun until someone gets hurt, and many did. Indeed Crowley himself had a sad end, addicted to heroin, reading cards for cash in Hastings, he conceded: “I have doubted as to whether I am such a great magician after all.”

 

Sutton is London's unlikely porn capital
Sutton is London’s unlikely porn capital

 

FINSBURY LIBRARY 245 St John Street, EC1V 4NB

Outraged by the limited selection at their local library, playwright-in-waiting Joe Orton and his partner Kenneth Halliwell defaced and embellished 72 books, eventually receiving prison sentences of six months in April 1962 – a sentence Orton felt was more harsh “because we were queers”. Before their scheme was rumbled they added a typewritten synopsis to a Dorothy L Sayers crime novel which described a storyline involving paedophilia, transvestism and a seven-inch phallus; and gave an innocuous romance, Queen’s Favourite, an entirely different aspect with the addition to the cover of two half-naked men grappling.

 

PORN CAPITAL Sutton, Surrey

The extraordinary title Porn Capital Of The UK goes to the suburb of Sutton in deepest South London. More often praised for fast commuter links and well-appointed shopping centres, in recent years scenic Sutton has found unexpected fame as a location for adult movies; its quiet car parks and pleasant town centre have featured in over 100 explicit films.

 

Extracted from Herb Lester’s pocket guide to Filthy London, available now, £4 (herblester.com)

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