Sex Workers Masked Parade

Soho, London

Sex Workers Masked Parade: Sunday 19th July 2009 was the day of the annual Soho Festival which I’ve occasionally attended. In 2009 it included a masked parade around Soho by sex workers and supporters, stopping at several locations for short speeches and ending with one of the organisers speaking on the stage in St Anne’s Gardens. They were welcomed by the Soho Society and there were several speeches of support from others including he Rector of St Annes, Soho, Fr David Gilmore.

Sex work has been a part of Soho life for over 200 years and while people in the area may have differing views on its morality the community seems united in wanting to keep their friends and neighbours safe. Currently selling sex is legal in the UK, though there are many restrictions on how it can be carried out, including those that make it illegal for more than one woman to operate in a flat, or to employ a receptionist or security staff.

Various laws have largely taken women off the streets of Soho and most now work singly in women-run ‘walk-up flats’. But working alone is dangerous and many apparently ignore the law to have another person, usually a female ‘maid’, on site as a safety measure.

Westminster police had carried out a number of raids on these flats, and earlier in 2009 their attempts to close down some of them were defeated with the help of local people.

Such raids however continue – and for example in January 2014, Rupert Everett wrote in The Observer (quoted here on the English Collective of Prostitutes web site) about a raid he had seen about a raid by around 200 police.

“They broke down doors, intimidated girls into accepting cautions (ie criminal records) and served civil-eviction papers that, unless you were a lawyer, you would not know had hidden in their depths (20-odd pages) the time and date you were to appear in court if you wanted to appeal.”

As Everett stated, “There is a land grab going on in Soho under the banner of morality.” He gives an entertaining account of the trial which makes clear that the magistrates and police had little concern for justice. Large sums can be made from redeveloping many of the old properties in which these flats are mainly found.

Much of the time the police justify their actions as being about human trafficking – but after another highly publicised raid on 20 flats in 2013, “no trafficking victims were found in the operation“. “Scotland Yard said the raids were authorised by Westminster council and adhered to legal procedure.”

In 2009 the parade organisers, ‘Soho Working Girls‘ and the ‘English Collective of Prostitutes‘, pointed to recently published research from the Economic and Social Research Council which “proves that most sex workers are not trafficked. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, grannies, aunties struggling to support ourselves and our families, just like other women.”

More recently the women working in these flats have suffered a number of attacks by gangs of young people who come to film attacks on them to post on social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Police have failed to protect the women.

More about the parade and many more pictures on My London Diary: Sex Workers Masked Parade.

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