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A city strip club has revealed a bit too much about the nature of its business, claim residents.
They accused The Bing in Dover Street of breaking pledges by displaying images of naked women in its windows
Now they have been reluctantly removed after the Oaten Hill and District Society wrote to the city council to complain.
In his letter of complaint, society chairman Fred Whitemore said: “I am writing on behalf of the society about the recent appearance of white silhouettes of naked young women in the upstairs windows at the front of The Bing, together with a sign proclaiming the establishment to be a ‘gentleman’s club’ with ‘no membership charge’.
"La Senza had a 25ft photograph of a woman in a bikini up for months and the Ann Summers shop is currently displaying a near-naked woman with a whip in her hand" - Bing owner Ralph Noel
“This change, which has appeared in the last few days, is in blatant violation of one of the promises set down by the applicant and accepted by the council’s licencing sub-committee when the establishment’s licence was granted.
“That undertaking was that the premises would look like a pub from the outside and that, other than the name, there would be no other signage. We expect the council will require that undertaking continues to be honoured and the changes recently made will be removed immediately.”
Bing owner Ralph Noel accused the council of double standards, saying it needs to “pull itself into the 21st century”.
He told the Gazette: “These silhouettes are no worse than you would see at the opening of a 1970s James Bond film, which is shown pre-watershed.
“We admit we have breached the terms of the licence, but the fact is that La Senza had a 25ft photograph of a woman in a bikini up for months and the Ann Summers shop is currently displaying a near-naked woman with a whip in her hand and a near naked-man handcuffed to a bed.
“Those constitute far stronger sexual imagery than the silhouettes on the side of our building.
“This is an extraordinary case of double standards. The city council really does need to pull itself into the 21st century.”
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