Soho restaurant owner vows to fight council's order to take down red light district signs

 
Fighting on: owner Will Ricker in front of the signs Picture: Jeremy Selwyn
Miranda Bryant22 August 2013

Council bosses were today accused of trying to hide Soho’s colourful past after ordering a restaurant to remove neon signs harking back to its former status as London’s red light district.

The signs — which read “peep show” and “adult video” — were installed outside La Bodega Negra early last year as a “homage”, owners claim, to the area’s history.

But after a nine-month fight with Westminster City Council, the restaurant, in Old Compton Street, has been issued with a discontinuance notice to remove the signs, saying they cause “substantial injury” to the area.

The restaurant argues that the signs, designed by Serge Becker, the creative director of La Esquina in New York and The Box in London, are a work of art and have become a landmark in their own right — especially since singer Kylie Minogue was photographed by them as she left the restaurant last year.

But in a letter, Westminster council wrote: “The continued display of the neon advertisement is considered to constitute a substantial injury to the amenity of the area.” It adds that Soho is a conservation area, which is home to five Grade II-listed buildings.

Kylie Minogue is seen here leaving La Bodega Negra Restaurant In Soho, London with a unknown Male Companion at around midnight. Kylie continued her night out in London until 2.30am at The Embassy Club in Mayfair after leaving La Bodega Negra in A Black London Taxi.
Splash News

Restaurant owner Will Ricker vowed to fight council bosses by keeping the signs in place.

He said: “They have completely failed to mention that it was the centre of the capital’s sex industry, which made Soho famous globally and a tourist attraction.

“And now as it slowly changes away from that, we wanted to make a statement that paid homage to the cultural importance of that epoch. Particularly as its remnants are being eradicated by landlords, the council and technology, the neons are a remnant of a vanishing, golden era that should be celebrated, not forgotten.” He said the restaurant would fight the discontinuation notice.

Soho has changed considerably in recent years. Many of its sex shops have closed and brothels have given way to bars hotels and restaurants.

Rosemarie MacQueen, the council’s strategic director for built environment, said: “We have a sense of humour and can see the tongue in cheek nature of this display, but this is about fairness.

“Over a number of years we have worked with partners to clean up the Soho conservation area and remove neon signs from the windows of a number of sex shops, we cannot tell that industry one thing and then turn a blind eye when a different industry does the same thing.”

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