Published: 27 January, 2012
by JOSH LOEB

AN unlicensed Soho sex shop was has been warned to cease trading as part of City Hall’s long-running war on illegal erotic establishments

Westminster Council allows a limited number of vendors of adult DVDs, magazines and sex toys to trade in the West End, but such businesses are obliged to pay for licences that can cost as much as £30,000 per year.

Some owners of licensed sex shops have accused the council of not doing enough to crack down on their unlicensed competitors.

But enterprise chief Councillor Brian Connell said licensing officers were working hard to put the remaining unlicensed sex shops in the streets and alleyways around Brewer Street out of business.

On Friday Cllr Connell visited Walkers Court, where officers were serving a closure order on a shop selling pornographic magazines and uncertified medication. If the shop defies the order to stop trading, the council can take legal action to force it to close.

Cllr Connell, pictured above, told the West End Extra: “In my view, cleaning up the worst excesses of this trade is good for London and good for Westminster.

“It’s what we said we would do prior to the Olympics, so it is delivering on a commitment, and it also has the effect of making sure that legitimate businesses don’t run the risk of losing market share.”

In 1999 Soho had 61 illegal sex shops.

It now has just nine, and of these the courts are set to hear three closure hearings in the coming year.

The council’s declared intention is for no illegal sex shops to remain operational by the start of the Olympics.

As well as selling pornography, many unlicensed shops sell unregulated drugs such as Viagra.