A CONTROVERSIAL strip club has opened in Henley after all — with a 19-year-old female as manager.
Diamonds and Pearls in the Greys Road car park held its first night last Friday, attended by scores of people and overseen by a former Gillotts School and Henley College student.
The news has reignited plans for a demonstration in Henley, organised by town councillor Barry Wood.
The surprise opening happened after owner Manowar Hussain pulled out of the venture, blaming negative publicity and pressure from his family.
The 38-year-old father-of-five told the Standard last week: “I am walking away completely. I was always more interested in the (upstairs) nightclub — the strip club was going to be the responsibility of the manager, Andy Mags.
“I have sold the lease of the building to somebody else and that is it.”
In fact, his share in the business was bought by Mr Mags, a 40-year-old American.
The opening of Latinos night club, which is on the first floor of the building, took place as expected on Thursday night last week.
Diamonds and Pearls opened the following night with Mr Mags claiming he didn’t want “to let people down”.
He said: “I was at the opening of Latinos and speaking to everyone and they were very disappointed that the club downstairs wasn’t open.
“When we opened on Friday and Saturday nights we did very well — as many as 200 people turned up and a lot of them were from Henley.
“Quite a few couples came in and even girls who were on their own. It was a good night.”
Mr Mags, a father-of-two, who is originally from Chicago and now lives in Caversham, continued: “Ninety per cent of people who came were wearing suits. There were Mercedes, Jaguars and a Maserati in the car park.
“People are coming in from out of town and that will be good for all of the other businesses in the town.
“If businesspeople and their clients want to spend an evening at the club, they would want to go out for a meal first, which would be good for the restaurants.
“The club can only be a good thing for Henley.”
Mr Mags claimed that when Mr Hussain spoke to town councillors and the police to say the club was not going to open, they were “disappointed”.
The club will be open Monday to Saturday, from 8pm until 2am. There is an entry charge of £10.
Mr Mags, who owned Diamond and Pearls in London and ran a club in Slough, promised “around 10 girls a night, who come from all over the place” and said lap dances would cost £20 a time.
Club manager Francesca Wilson, of Greys Road, Henley, said: “I never really thought about the fact that it is a strip club. I worked on Saturday and Sunday nights and from what I have seen it will bring a lot of much-needed money into the town.”
She said used to be a manager at the Red Lion Hotel.
The demonstration will take place on Saturday, February 14, starting in Market Place at 11am.
Cllr Wood said: “We have all been misled by Mr Hussain, who stated to several sources that they definitely would not proceed.
“Despite the owner’s positive spin on the business, lap dance and striptease clubs are not purely fun places for the lads.
“Research shows that these clubs can be linked to prostitution and an increase in male sexual violence against women who work in the clubs and those who live, visit and work in the vicinity.
“Put simply, these clubs fuel a sexist male culture of treating women as sex objects and inferior citizens.”
Cllr Wood, a former town mayor, has admitted visiting strip clubs himself but says Henley is not the place for one.
He said: “Approximately 5,000 young people access Henley’s schools and colleges every weekday and we do not want them confronted by sexual imagery as they pass through the Greys Road car park.
“In fact, there are five schools, a college and many youth organisations within half a mile of the club.
“It is in a wholly inappropriate location and will give Henley an unacceptable identity. It is located in a car park which is used by many vulnerable women late at night and it does nothing to support the town’s family ethos.
“It will add to the growing night-time economy of the town, which is against the majority of residents’ wishes.
Cllr Wood, who lives in Blandy Road with wife Jeni, also a town councillor, has formed a residents’ action group to try to persuade South Oxfordshire District Council to reverse its decision to grant the club an adult entertainment licence.
He said: “RAG is definitely not a morality group, nor are we Mary Whitehouse clones. However, we are deadly serious that Henley is not the place for a strip club.
“Research indicates that clubs of this nature cause public disorder. The club will be another pressure point on scarce police resources late at night and during the Henley Royal Regatta and festivals.
“Residents close to the club will suffer a detrimental impact and through the problems we already have in the area will be further intensified.”
Published on 09 February 2009
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