Penthouse plans strip club for former home of Madame JoJo's
'A backward step for Soho', warn residents
Friday, 13th December 2024 — By Tom Foot
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A US firm has applied to open a two-floor strip club in the former home of legendary cabaret venue Madame JoJo’s, in what residents fear will be a “backward step” for Soho.
The Penthouse Club has applied for a sexual entertainment venues, SEV, licence “for a variety of nude and semi-nude dancing and acrobatic performance” at Walker’s Court and Brewer Street.
Soho Prime Entertainment Ltd, owned by New Orleans-based John Kirkendoll Management, has “unparalleled experience in running world-class hospitality venues in the United States”, the application states.
The Extra understands the application, for sale of alcohol until 3.30am, seven days a week, will be met with a series of objections from groups, including The Soho Society.
Conrad Roeber, a long-term resident who lives close to the venue, said: “Soho is already full. People who go to strip bars are generally inebriated.
“It will create more nuisance in what is a residential neighbourhood. Soho is a village. There are limits to how much activity there can be here.”
Mr Roeber said there was a small window of silence in Soho that began around 3am most nights that was “very very precious” to the people who live there, and added: “But also I think we should be thinking about whether this is the kind of thing our licensing activity should embrace.
“Even though such considerations cannot be used as formal grounds to refuse a licence, do we want another strip bar here?
“The Penthouse Club, it’s an anachronistic view of Soho. It’s men getting their rocks off from naked women. It is deeply back- ward-looking.
“The worry is that you are rebranding Soho to where it was in the dark ages, before women’s lib, before feminism. Before #METOO.
“As residents we are effectively among the custodians of Soho. We are important in helping the council curate life here. Whether we are allowed to or not, that’s what the licensing and planning processes can lead to. We
should be thinking about how Soho develops.
“The council has limited powers and we have limit- ed powers to influence these things. But we will try.”
Madame JoJo’s, once owned by Paul Raymond, opened in the 1960s and was the centre of London cabaret for over half a century.
The club was forced to close in 2014 when Westminster City Council withdrew its licence after it emerged bouncers had baseball bats hidden in bid liners ready for action.
In 2022 landlord Soho Estates signalled that a new MadameJoJo’s club would open at the venue in a venture run by Simon Hammerstein, the grandson of the renowned Hollywood composer Oscar Hammerstein.
That plan appears to have been dropped, leading to the new proposals over two floors of the redeveloped building from Kirkendoll Management.
The firm runs strip and lap-dancing clubs in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Florida and Perth, Australia, and is the master licensor for Penthouse-branded goods around the world.
Describing the experience in its Baltimore establishment, the Kirkendoll website says:“Let our gorgeous waitresses do the serving, while our stunning entertainers fulfil your wildest fantasies.”
It adds that dining amid the “gorgeous girls” is the ultimate way to “have your cake, and eat it too”.
Women are welcome at the clubs, it says.
The bid states: “The applicant company is wholly owned by John Kirkendoll, who as founder and CEO of Kirkendoll Management LLC… has unparalleled experience in running world-class hospitality venues in the United States and internationally.
“John has assembled a trusted and expert management team for this new venture, The Penthouse Club in Soho.”
A code of conduct submitted as part of the application says that customers would not be permitted to make physical contact during any performance.
Councillors are set to decide the application at a meeting in February.
