Support letter from Soho Society member

My name is Juliet Peston.  I have been around Soho since I was young.  My mother, Lady Peston, used to take me and my brothers, Robert and Edmund, there every weekend – my mother is something of a celebrity in Soho, having appeared on a television programme with Delia Smith at Lina’s on Brewer Street.  I was always aware of every part of the Soho community and in particular the sex industry as my mother has been on the board of the Cicely Northcote Trust which has funded health care for sex workers.

I have worked in Soho at Alastair Little restaurant from 1985 when it opened.  For the last nine years, until very recently, I was the executive chef.

Soho is where I socialise and spend most of my leisure time.  My friends refer to it as my ‘beloved Soho’.  I am an ex officio member of The Groucho Club, The Colony Rooms, Jerry’s, Tricia’s.  I am a well known face at The French House on Dean Street.  

I am also a member of the Soho Society and am soon to stand for election to the executive committee.  It is based at St Anne’s church where I have done voluntary work cooking for the local congregation.  I love old Soho – the shops, the cafes, the clubs, etc., of which the sex industry is a key part. 

Over the years I have got to know the women who work in it and many have become my friends.  I often visit women in their places of work for a cup of tea and a chat.  I know their life stories and their situation.  Many of the working women are mothers.  Many are immigrant women whose families back home rely on the money they make for their survival.  Most of the maids are also mothers and even grandmothers.  Without exception all are working to support their loved ones.  Some come from out of London from places where there is no local work. 

I have seen from being in the flats that all that goes on there is the work the women are paid to do.  I have witnessed the good relationship between working women and their maids, and the care all take to ensure that women are protected from violence and exploitation.  They are selective about which customers they let into the flats and turn away anyone who appears to be drunk or the worse for wear in any way. 

Prostitution is just about sex and women trying to make a living.  There is nothing anti-social about it.  It is a job where you can choose your own hours which works especially well for women with kids.  It is also a job where women get paid better than other jobs.  No-one that I have ever spoken to supports women being criminalised for exchanging sex for money.

Over the last nine years I have been in Dean Street nearly on a daily basis and at all times of the day and night.  Also, as a recent ex smoker, I have spent a lot of time standing outside the Groucho. 

I am well aware that there is a drug’s industry in Soho but I have never felt intimidated by drug dealers on the streets of Soho or ever been offered drugs.  Those people who want to buy drugs go looking for them.

Anyone who frequents the clubs and bars knows that drug use goes on in Soho. 

But I do not recognise the accounts which claim that Dean Street is full of people hassling others to buy drugs.  From what I have observed, I see no connection between the sex industry and the drug’s industry.  It is unclear to me why 61 Dean Street has been singled out as the reason for the alleged increase in drug dealing that has been going on at the end of the street.  Why not the Groucho Club or Signor Zillis Restaurant or The Colony Rooms?  I have also never seen any evidence of men from outside bringing customers up into the flat at 61 Dean Street.  Neither have I seen ‘clippers’ or ‘touts’ operating opposite the club.  

A barman at The Groucho Club told me the drugs trade in Dean Street took place outside the shops next to 61 Dean Street; not outside it or in its doorway and it appeared completely separate to what occurred there.

If drug use is a problem in the area then why haven’t other clubs or pubs been threatened with closure for anti-social behaviour?  Why is the sex industry and this flat in particular being targeted?  Why are police time and resources being put into an activity against the wishes of most local people?  We feel more threatened by raucous groups of drunk men smoking outside the pubs in Soho. 

I am also concerned that the information which is being put before the court has been manipulated.   I was very surprised that the police claim that none of the people they say to have spoken to can come forward because they are fearful and intimidated.  In all my years in Soho and my conversations with the people I worked and socialised with, I have not heard anyone complain about feeling threatened or intimidated.  Soho is in fact a very easy going and safe place where people know each other and have a real sense of community.  Anyone who says otherwise must have a hidden agenda.  Unfortunately anonymity prevents us from finding out what it may be.  Many of the people I have spoken said they were questioned by police about 61 Dean St and told them they had no problem.  Why were they not asked to come forward?   

The only people I spoke to who did not want to give their names were not worried about the sex industry but about possible reprisals instigated by the police and council.  They feared their premises may be targeted with a Closure Order.  The police must rely on a good relationship with local people to do their job.  Acting in this way is sullying their reputation. 

I am surprised that seven officers were found to raid 61 Dean Street.  Whenever I have needed a police officer, either personally or as a restaurateur, I have had to go out looking for one.  No one responds to my call and I have never found one on the street. 

I was devastated by the murder of five young women in Ipswich.  My friends and I discussed that it was reassuring to know that women working inside in flats in Soho were so much safer.  Threats by the police to close premises and to prosecute maids, as they did just before Christmas and are doing now with 61 Dean St will force women to work on their own or take to the streets, endangering their safety. 

I have been gathering support amongst the Soho community against the closure of 61 Dean Street.  I have received as much if not more support in my opposition to this closure as I did in my opposition to the closure of The Colony Rooms.  Both represent a gentrification of Soho which most Soho locals and visitors are opposed to.   People feel that if the sex industry goes so will the other small businesses which give Soho its unique character and atmosphere.

The proprietor of a local Dean Street pub who is helping to circulate the petitions asked what else she could do to help keep the local women safe in their places of work rather than being forced onto the streets.  I have also talked to several members of the Soho Society who see sex workers as an important part of our community; two prominent members of the executive committee recently took part in carols on the streets of Soho in support of the local sex industry.  No one feels there is anything wrong with 61 Dean St.  Women and men are selling sexual services in many other venues.  Women and men are also flirting and having sex without money changing hands.  What is the difference? 

This police action seems aimed at clamping down on the visible sex industry regardless of the wishes of the local community.  Why are police time and resources being squandered in this way?  The only explanation is that the police are pursuing an agenda dictated by government.  This is not the police role.  Their priority should be protecting the community they serve, starting with the most vulnerable – women.  Women’s safety should come first. 

 18 Feb 09