Soho has been London’s best known red light district for generations. Street soliciting there was pushed indoors by the Street Offences Act 1959, and what remains is a small number of flats and licensed adult businesses among bars, restaurants and theatres. Most escort work in London no longer happens there. It is online, by appointment and spread across the city.
How it began
Soho’s link with the sex trade goes back centuries, and through the twentieth century its streets filled with clubs, strip joints and brothels. The Street Offences Act 1959 made it an offence to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution, and much of the trade moved indoors into flats, advertised by signs and cards on the door.
Walk up flats
A walk up is a flat where clients come in off the street, usually with one or more workers and a maid who greets them. In law, a premises where two or more people provide sexual services is likely to be a brothel, and keeping or managing one is an offence under section 33A of the Sexual Offences Act 1956. Westminster City Council and the police have used closure and enforcement powers against some premises over the years, and sex worker organisations have argued that closures push workers into more isolated and less safe settings. What is a brothel? sets out the rule.
Licensed adult businesses
Soho also has sex shops and some adult venues that hold licences from the council under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. A licence is a legal status, not a recommendation, and it does not extend to selling sex.
Soho today
Most of Soho is now restaurants, bars, theatres, media offices and nightlife, and the sex trade is a small part of it. Some walk up flats still operate. The area is part of the West End and Central London in this site’s figures, which count the public London profiles based there: West End and Central London escorts has the rates and the profiles.
Escorts and walk ups
An escort is booked by appointment, usually works alone and agrees the details in advance. One person working alone from her own address is not running a brothel. A walk up is a premises open to anyone who comes in. The law, the screening and the risks differ. How booking works covers the escort side.
A warning for visitors
Be wary of anyone who invites you into a bar or a “private club” in Soho. Clip joints use hostesses and inflated bills to overcharge, and some use intimidation to collect. A venue that will not show you prices before you sit down is one to leave. Safety and help has the contacts if you are overcharged or threatened, including Report Fraud and the police.