Penthouse Magazine-inspired strip club will take over Madame Jojo’s Soho spot
By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter
A strip club inspired by the notorious adult magazine Penthouse has been given the green light to open in Soho.
The club will offer Cirque de Soleil-style performances, fully-nude striptease in private VIP rooms and once-weekly shows by LGBTQI+ performers.
Westminster council’s licensing sub-committee approved The Penthouse Club’s application for a sexual entertainment venue licence during a meeting yesterday.
The committee said the club’s owner, Soho Prime Entertainment Ltd, was a ‘responsible, professional and experienced operator’ and that the company had agreed to stringent conditions.
The club, which sees itself as appealing to ‘high-end’ customers, will open in Walker’s Court, which previously hosted the night club Madame Jojo’s, which closed in 2014 and has lain vacant since then.
During the meeting, councillors heard from objectors who expressed concerns about the new club’s 300-person capacity.
They argued the area was ‘saturated’ with adult entertainment venues which are said to be attracting drug touts and pickpocketing gangs.
There were no objections from the Met. Caroline Kirkendoll, representing Soho Prime Entertainment Ltd, said the club wanted to attract an older, and more female, demographic.
She said the Soho Prime’s parent company, Kirkendoll Management, has managed clubs in crime hotspots across the world without problems.
She said: “We’ve had zero instances of security issues with performers or guests, frankly. So, to say this is something so fundamental to our operation sounds fairly basic.
“It is a core tenant under which we operate. Regardless of the extent we must go to to ensure safety for everybody – performers, guests, our staff, at all times of the day and night – we will take those steps, conditioned or otherwise.”
Kirkendoll Management runs adult entertainment venues across the US and Australia. This application appears to be the company’s first foray into the UK market.
Entry at their Soho location is set to cost £25 per person and table reservations at a costly £150 per head, according to the application form.
A food and drink menu shows customers can purchase a bottle of Clase Azul Reposado tequila at £1,000, a 30g portion of Imperial Oscietra caviar at £100 and a 40oz Tomahawk steak at £188. Grilled sandwiches and burgers costing roughly £12 each will also be sold.
Soho Prime Entertainment is expected to pour up to £8million into renovating the site, which it says will fund 75 full-time and part-time jobs once it’s complete.
Around 25 to 50 self-employed table-side performances are expected to be working on a typical night while the main stage will have between five and 10 performances.
There will be live music and Sunday evenings may include a show by drag performers to appeal to the LGBTQI+ community, according to the licensing application.
Pictured top: A photo of one of the performers at a Penthouse Club owned by Kirkendoll Management (Picture: Kirkendoll Management)