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| Rupert Everett: 'We've lost our London – and Soho is the last victim' | Rupert Everett: 'We've lost our London – and Soho is the last victim' |
| (4 months later) | |
| There's a lot of talk about the revitalisation of city centres, skyrocketing rents and the flight from (rather than to) the suburbs. What almost nobody talks about, however, is how all this plays out for prostitution – with the notable exception of Rupert Everett. | |
| As part of his ongoing campaign to stick up for sex workers and the red light districts they call the office, and ahead of the screening of his documentary Love for Sale on Channel 4 on Monday evening, Everett held court at the Soho Sanctum hotel to bemoan the social cleansing of London's seedy centre. | As part of his ongoing campaign to stick up for sex workers and the red light districts they call the office, and ahead of the screening of his documentary Love for Sale on Channel 4 on Monday evening, Everett held court at the Soho Sanctum hotel to bemoan the social cleansing of London's seedy centre. |
| "London has slipped through our fingers," he said. "We've lost our city. London has turned into Monaco – and Soho is the last victim. Now like everywhere else it is being sold to rich Russians and Chinese to lie vacant. | "London has slipped through our fingers," he said. "We've lost our city. London has turned into Monaco – and Soho is the last victim. Now like everywhere else it is being sold to rich Russians and Chinese to lie vacant. |
| "For many people, there's a real attachment to Soho. In fact if I had a home, it would be Soho. It's important it doesn't lose its rough edges." | "For many people, there's a real attachment to Soho. In fact if I had a home, it would be Soho. It's important it doesn't lose its rough edges." |
| The flipside of the crackdown on Soho brothels and the brand-new skyscrapers fitted out with helipads going up around that neighbourhood is something rather surprising: prostitution is going suburban. | |
| Part of this is due to the rise of the internet, which has allowed prostitutes to work from home, as well as the idea that "there's a dominatrix in every village in England," says Everett. But it also goes hand in hand with the new desirability of the centre of cities – it is hard not to think that organised brothels being stamped out in the name of human trafficking is just another form of gentrification. | Part of this is due to the rise of the internet, which has allowed prostitutes to work from home, as well as the idea that "there's a dominatrix in every village in England," says Everett. But it also goes hand in hand with the new desirability of the centre of cities – it is hard not to think that organised brothels being stamped out in the name of human trafficking is just another form of gentrification. |
| "Politicians and police rebrand prostitutes into victims (from she-devils) and then just treat them the same way. The criminalisation of the punter will just make prostitution more dangerous – it will drive it underground. Why are we still living in the shadow of the reformation?" | "Politicians and police rebrand prostitutes into victims (from she-devils) and then just treat them the same way. The criminalisation of the punter will just make prostitution more dangerous – it will drive it underground. Why are we still living in the shadow of the reformation?" |
| In the documentary, Everett speaks to suburban sex workers such as Sammy, a divorced father of two who spent 27 years as a bricklayer and now masturbates on webcams for 50p a minute wearing a blonde wig in a quiet part of Milton Keynes. Watching him on his sofa next to a laundry basket in a house with unadorned beige walls, venetian blinds and nondescript wooden furniture, you are struck by how far this is from the "old Soho" of X-rated flyers in every phonebox. | |
| Rising rents and interventions from authorities have forced sex out of the city centre – and as far as Everett is concerned, as the red light district goes, so too does the city. | Rising rents and interventions from authorities have forced sex out of the city centre – and as far as Everett is concerned, as the red light district goes, so too does the city. |
| "We are such sluts that anything's for sale," he said. "All of London has a hooker mentality." | "We are such sluts that anything's for sale," he said. "All of London has a hooker mentality." |
| Love for Sale, part one, airs at 10pm tonight on Channel 4. Part two airs at 10pm on Monday 5 May | Love for Sale, part one, airs at 10pm tonight on Channel 4. Part two airs at 10pm on Monday 5 May |
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