Alix Fox

When protestors from Class War hurled paint across Brick Lane’s Cereal Killer Café in September, it showed how far Shoreditch had come. Old-school anarchist uprisings aside, the majority view is that the area has lost its edge, and is now just the playground of hipsters, tourists and hipster tourists. This may be true, but it’s worth remembering that right at its heart, at the cross of Shoreditch High Street and Great Eastern Street, sits a nightlife institution of such singular intensity that the neighbourhood’s new breed of bland, well-heeled residents would splutter into their flat whites if they knew what went on there. Chariots is a gay sauna that’s somehow stood firm and resisted the developers for nearly 20 years. Amidst a devastating year for gay venues in London, alarm bells were set off in June when it was reported that the site might make way for a luxury hotel, but thankfully for its patrons, there’s been very little follow-up. ‘It was founded in 1997,’ says staff member Lewis, ‘when finding a comfy, welcoming place to be openly gay or explore your sexuality was perhaps tougher than it is now.’ ‘We salute anyone with the sheer force to warrant a wipe-clean ceiling’ For the uninitiated, a gay sauna is, as our listing online states: ‘like a leisure centre, but with sex’ – a place where men cruise and hook up. Chariots has other saunas in Vauxhall, Waterloo, and Streatham, but the Shoreditch branch is the flagship. The 20,000 square foot building covers three floors

Forget the clichés – here’s the ultimate list of hen do activities in London to properly celebrate your friend’s wedding. Gather everyone together to drink white russians from cat bowls, create your own glittery mermaid tails, munch on chocolate cornflake scotch eggs or learn some new spanking skills at a workshop while sleeping over in a chapel. All you need to sort out are the L-plates. 

‘This feels like weird yoga,’ laughs Gary Barlow, as he lies on a photo studio floor, his legs crisscrossed in the air. ‘Or Take That Tetris!’ says bandmate Mark Owen, sprawled to the left in a tangle of skinny boho scarves. ‘I feel like a box is going to drop between my legs at any moment,’ adds final member, Howard Donald, who’s also flat on his back. The three fortysomethings, who are currently arranged like videogame blocks for our cameras, first met in 1990, brought together by a manager who wanted to create a Brit version of US pop group New Kids On The Block. Take That went on to become one of the most blockbusting boy bands ever: 56 Number One singles and 37 Number One albums worldwide and the quickest-selling tour in UK history. ‘No one was sure we were going to last two seconds,’ reflects Gary during our lunch break, as Howard distributes magma-hot chilli sauce across his plate (apparently he smothers it over ‘everything his lips touch except his wife’). ‘Acid house was huge and lads like us weren’t being signed because male vocal groups were seen as being from an earlier time,’ Barlow continues. ‘But with so many faceless dance acts, there was no one to go on the covers of magazines like Jackie and Smash Hits. The industry was crying out for some new blokes.’ Take That by Andy Parsons ‘We’re one of the few boybands who became more successful when we put our clothes on’ As a high-schooler, my bedroom walls were plastered with Take That posters, smeared with Rimmel l

After a while, hen parties can start to feel like ‘Groundhog Day’: it’s all cupcakes, cocktails, and identical games played over and over again. From twerking ping-pong balls to a giant marble run made from toilet roll, we’ve pulled together a list of the best hen party challenges and games to make your hen night or weekend go off with a bang. And there's not a cupcake in sight. RECOMMENDED: Our guide to having the best hen party in London   

‘Here you go – this is for being a good girl,’ says the waitress, as she serves me a colossal wedge of red velvet gateau the size of a skateboard ramp, more heavily frosted than the Abominable Snowman’s car windscreen. It looks delicious. But I can’t eat it. Because my mouth is blocked with a black rubber gag in the shape of a dog bone. A string of saliva lurches from the side of my lips and bungees down onto the table top. ‘Aw, are you hungry, poor little pup?’ asks the woman standing over me, looking kindly into my eyes as she pulls lightly on the lead around my neck. ‘Let’s take off that muzzle so you can sip your cappuccino – I’ll pour it into a bowl and you can lap it up from the floor.’ I swear this isn’t a shaggy dog story… I’m at Coffee, Cake and Kisses, a café on Warren Street that doubles as an event space and specialises in holding workshops, talks and meet-ups centred around relationships and sexuality. Tonight, the café plays host to Wagging Tails, Wet Noses: a monthly ‘munch’ for folks who get turned on by role-playing as pets and their owners. ‘A munch is a chilled-out get-together for like-minded fetishists, beginners and experts alike, where they can meet new mates, ask advice and swap saucy tips over a beer – or a brew and a brownie,’ explains the group’s organiser, a 23-year-old ‘adorable yet sultry kitten’ named Bambi. ‘It’s not a sex club, so nothing explicit happens and guests all wear everyday clothes,’ she clarifies, ‘but pet players are encouraged to

‘We recently carried out a survey which showed that 23 percent of ladies were worried about partners judging the look of their labia,’ frowns Ky Hoyle, founder of female-centric London sex shop Sh!. ‘More than one in six had thought about having surgery to change the appearance of their vaginal lips. It’s heart-breaking that so many women view their lady parts as ugly, humiliating, or somehow “broken”. I’m determined to change that.’ For 14 years, her Hoxton Square store has been helping lasses to love their front bottoms. They provide a cosy, non-threatening environment packed with products designed to please pussies of all persuasions. They also run classes (in-store and now in the privacy of customers’ homes too) covering everything from the A-Z of the G-spot to experimenting with ‘pegging’ – aka using a strap-on dildo. Sh!’s latest drive to give the V to vajayjay shaming sees them pair up with Brighton-based artist Jamie McCartney, who’s best known for his eight-metre long sculpture entitled the Great Wall of Vagina – made from plaster casts of over 400 volunteers’ vulvas, aged between 18 and 76. Created in 2012, the Great Wall of Vagina is intended to educate people about how completely normal it is for cho-chas to come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and celebrate the fabulousness of all types of foof, from the frilly to the asymmetric to the pierced. Artist Jamie McCartney with The Great Wall of Vagina Versions of The Great Wall will be exhibited for free at the

ロンドンで思い出に残るワークショップに参加したい。そう思うのなら、陶磁器のペニスを作ってみるのはどうだろう。このユニークなワークショップを開催しているのは、エロティック陶芸作家のアデル・ブリッジスだ。彼女は、2017年から自身の制作活動の楽しさを伝えるため、カスタム ディルド制作のワークショップを始めた。 ハックニーにある彼女のスタジオへ行くと、いろいろな意味でプライベートな部屋の壁には、仮面を着けた女性の煽情的なスケッチがマスキングテープで貼られ、棚には派手で毒キノコのように美しいマーブル模様のアナルプラグが並んでいる。 この投稿をInstagramで見る Next workshop is on 17.11 and spaces are filling up.... if you were thinking about it, book now to avoid disappointment - I only have one more workshop this year 🙆🏼‍♀️👩🏻‍🎨🌭 ⚡️Did you know that I now accept KLARNA too? ⚡️You can pay in 3 instalments or pay later✨No fees ✨No interest✨No hassle✨Select Klarna at the checkout or visit my website and click the Klarna button for more info https://www.adelebrydges.com/klarna-pay-later 💛 Happy Sunday lovers. Adele Brydges(@adelebrydges)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年10月月27日午前2時32分PDT ワークショップで実際に作成できるかわいらしいディルド 筆者がバナナケーキを頬張っている間に、ブリッジスは陶磁器性ディルドのデコレーション方法について説明してくれた。ディルドの内部は空洞になっている。そのため、温水や冷水を入れてコルクでふたをし、温冷プレイに使うことができる仕組みだ。 ディルドが手作業で型取りされる様子は、ペニスがレンガの間に挟まれてしまったかのように見える。「これは完成品よりも20％大きいの。終わった頃には縮むから」とブリッジス。まさに本物同様というわけだ デコレーション作業は、まずアルコールでグリスを拭き取り、それから飾りとなる転写紙を選ぶ。 特殊なシールを水に浸し、陶磁器の上に乗せ、気泡を全て除いてから820度で焼く。 シールは、ビンテージプリントのかわいい動物や植物、ロープで縛られた手の絵、歌詞の一部などさまざま。 雄鶏のイラストを選んでみた。下手なジョークで突かれるのは私好みだからだ ブリッジスはユーモアがあって魅力的、作業は心地よく瞑想のようだった。 完成した私のディルドは、彼女が高級ブティックCoco de Merで販売している150ポンドの商品にも引けを取らない素晴らしい出来栄えだ。 この投稿をInstagramで見る Ever wanted to make your own ceramic dildo? Well, now you can at this unique workshop in Hackney. The big question though:

Wobbly rubber things are great, but wouldn’t a hand-painted ceramic dick look good on your dresser? One writer finds out how to create one What do you call a penis made from pottery? Girthenware? Porkcelain? Terracocka? ‘I like “crockery cockery”,’ winks erotic ceramics artist Adele Brydges, welcoming me into her Hackney studio. It’s an intimate room, in all respects: a thimble-tiny space, with sensual sketches of masked women masking-taped to walls, and clusters of beautiful marbled butt plugs sprouting from shelves like explicit toadstools. While I munch on banana cake, Brydges explains how we’re going to be decorating hollow porcelain dildos, which can be filled with warm or cool liquid for temperature play, then sealed with corks. Like phallic hip flasks. Rob Greig   I learn how each dildo is hand-cast from a mould that looks like someone slammed their dick between two bricks . ‘It’s 20 percent bigger than the final phalluses – they shrink when they’re finished,’ she says. Art imitating life then. Rob Greig The dick-oration process begins with me removing grease from my piece by swabbing it with alcohol, then choosing transfers to adorn it. These are special stickers you soak in water, slide on to the china then buff out any air bubbles and fire at 820 degrees. There’s a vast selection: pretty vintage prints of flora and fauna; drawings of hands bound with rope; snippets of song lyrics. I select a picture of a rooster, because being poked in the punani with a bad pun

Erotic workshops are on the rise, as Londoners become increasingly aware that the scant sex ed most of them received at school barely covered how to avoid getting knocked up, never mind how to conjure up a knockout orgasm. We meet some of the teachers Madam Storm (pictured above) ‘I’m a qualified therapist and international dominatrix who tutors women in my “strut” classes: group-confidence coaching sessions teaching women self-possession, sass and high self-esteem via striding in high heels. One attendee arrived barely able to stroll after a life-changing accident, despite years of physio. After the session, she cried tears of joy, having learned to move with a walking stick in a way that made her feel sexy.’  Master Dominic ‘One of my most famous classes instructs women on how to perform blow jobs – from the perspective of a gay guy who both gives and receives them, so knows how both can feel. It involves the use of ice lollies to help commit advanced skills to muscle memory. One big fellatio fib? That deep throating is what every dude desires. It’s been normalised by porn, but ramming someone’s penis against your oesophagus can be uncomfortable for them as well as for you. I once had a nana attend who’d never gone down on her husband; they’d been wedded more than 30 years. A week later she returned, pointed at an exceedingly posh car parked outside, and proclaimed: ‘You helped me earn that.’ I teach the Bentley of BJs.’ Sanjay Joshi and Natalie Ford   ‘We run a whole bun