Oxford’s only lapdancing club has closed after a decision to strip it of its licence by the local council. The closure follows claims that the club created a “hostile atmosphere.”
Oxford’s only lapdancing club has closed after a decision to strip it of its licence by the local council. The closure follows claims by locals residents that the club created a “hostile atmosphere.”
The Lodge Gentlemen’s Club, located by the Ice Rink on Oxpens Road, was last year forced to move from its former location on St Ebbes Street.
Previously, the club had been located only 50 yards from St Ebbes Church in Pennyfarthing Place, and there had been a sustained campaign to have the venue closed down.
The council’s latest decision was met with a promise from Al Thompson, the club’s owner, to fight the city council all the way to the High Court if necessary.
“They granted us a licence a year ago and now they’ve suddenly decided to change their minds, leaving a lot of people out of a job and wrecking a perfectly viable business” he told the Oxford Mail, claiming that up to 50 women worked in the club.
However, a representative of the local council pointed to the 23 letters of complaint against the renewal of the club’s licence. Sub-Licensing Committee Chairman Van Coulter said, “We heard that the existence of the club has given rise to problems in the area. There was one lady, for example, who gave testimony about comments made to her, which I am too much of a gentleman to repeat.”
He continued, “We have evidence that the existence of the club has created a hostile atmosphere, and we decided to give weight to that.”
Al Thompson refuted the accusations as “hearsay” before questioning why the police had been absent from the licence renewal meeting, a point on which Thames Valley Police has declined to comment.
Should his appeal fail Mr Thompson intends to reopen The Lodge as a nightclub.The news has drawn mixed reactions from the student community, with several students endorsing the council’s decision. One second year PPEist said of strip clubs, “Personally I don’t see the point of them at all”, adding, “It’s the council’s job to take into account the views of people living in the area – it’s their right.”
Midori Takenaka, a second year lawyer at Corpus Christi College, echoed these sentiments, saying, “I feel that the whole industry of ‘strip clubs’ is derogatory to women. The case should be thrown out of the High Court, if only to send a message to the public that using women as sexual objects is unacceptable in this day and age.”
Yet not all students were so concerned. Tom Heaps, a second year historian, although emphasising the fact that he does not condone the sex industry, said of the owner’s threat to take the case to the High Court, “I fully respect the owner’s decision to defend his livelihood.”
One second year medic expressed ambivalence at the news, arguing, “I don’t really mind it being closed: they were better in Bangkok.”
