Monday 5 January 2015

Jane Hall's Soho Sex Shop Paintings Act As A Reminder Of London's Disappearing History

The closure of numerous Soho sex shops adds extra value to Great Yarmouth artist's paintings.

Soho sex shop painting by artist Jane Hall


Great Yarmouth Artist Jane Hall

When Jane Hall started painting sex shops paintings for a solo show at the Reading Room in Soho's Frith Street in 2012, she had no idea how quickly London's changing landscape would trigger the closure of so many of the stores she chose to paint. Established sex shops and strip joints that had been a feature of Soho for years and years quickly began to close their doors. Cursed by crippling license fees, the boom in Internet sex toys and clean up campaigns, these colourful, vibrant and enticing stores were suddenly replaced by endless coffee shops, clothes boutiques and convenience stores.

Soho Sex Shop Painting by Jane Hall


Soho Sex Shop Paintings

"It's amazing how many of these shops have gone now," says Jane, just back from a trip to London. "Places like Janus, the Private Shop, Trashy Lingerie and Lovejoy's were thriving just a few years ago, but now they're gone forever - and have been placed with something much more bland. In fact, it's bizarre that a place like London doesn't have a booming sex shop industry, because everywhere else I go to in Europe really celebrates that kind of thing. But then we've always been a very prudish nation, so I guess I shouldn't really be surprised."

"It's a shame for me, though," Jane adds, "because sex shops are such exciting things to paint. I love all the neon signage and the seedily erotic window displays, plus the general air of mystery behind the boarded up frontages and rainbow-strip curtains. I guess it's lucky that I painted so many of them when I did, because they appear to be lost forever now. But at least the sex shop paintings still remain as a record of what Soho used to be like."

For more information on Jane Hall's sex shop paintings, visit www.jane-hall.co.uk.