Debauched tales of UK’s wildest strip clubs
IT cheekily kept the home fires burning during the Blitz, and now Britain’s oldest strip club is set to reopen its doors once more.
The Windmill was one of the most iconic venues in Soho, where showgirls served up cocktails and stripteases while air raid sirens wailed outside.
Its famous motto, “Never closed,” was reworked into “Never clothed” — as the Windmill Girls bared all to keep punters smiling as war waged on.
Now the venue is roaring back to life as the Rhino At The Windmill after being forced to close due to Covid restrictions.
It was the club that made strip clubs the beating heart of Soho – and paved the way for hundreds more around the country.
Beloved by celebs and ordinary punters alike, Britain’s strip clubs have sparked scenes of debauchery and excess, which have gone down in legend.
Here, we reveal the wildest tales from over the decades.
Rihanna’s head loss
At Stringfellows, pop superstar Rihanna is believed to have got a bit too close and personal with some of the club’s performers.
It was back in 2011 when the S&M songstress booked a private booth at the club – but ended up breaking the rules.
Rihanna – who is no stranger to getting pulses racing herself – is rumoured to have got a bit carried away with the show and ended up sticking her head between one of the women’s legs.
Her exuberance earned her a telling off from one of the burly bouncers who look after the club’s dancers.
It doesn’t seem to have deterred Rihanna though, who has been spotted back in the club on several occasions since.
Footie star’s eye-watering bill
Newcastle star Kieran Trippier was ‘stitched up’ by a group of friends who spent close to £10,000 on a strip club bill – before putting the defender’s name on the tab.
The Newcastle star was not believed to be present at the For Your Eyes Only club – however, his name still appeared on the bill, which included 76 £100 tokens for personal dances.
The bill was a staggering £9,663 and was believed to have been racked up by Trippier’s friends who play for National League side Gateshead.
A source told the The Sun: “Kieran has visited FYEO before but this bill was run up by some of the lads he knows at Gateshead. He wasn’t there.
“This seems to be their idea of a joke on Kieran. Who knows who footed the bill.”
Bieber’s revolting encounter
Notorious London nightclub The Box is infamous for its explicit late night cabaret shows, but Justin Bieber allegedly got more than he bargained for after a night of partying.
Drag queen A’Whora told GK Barry’s podcast Saving Grace that a few years ago, a revolting punter “threw semen at Justin”.
A shocked Grace then asked how he reacted, and A’Whora claimed Bieber joked: “Gotta keep an eye out for Selena!”.
The quip was a reference to lyrics from Justin’s hit song Beauty and Beat.
Whether or not A’Whora’s memory was entirely accurate has never been confirmed, but such an incident certainly wouldn’t be out of place given what else goes on at The Box.
Some of the celeb haunt’s most jaw-dropping shows have included simulated threesomes and a performer named “Laqueefa”, who played well-known tunes with her genitalia.
Corrie star’s dancer wedding
Corrie star Chris Quinten went into the lucrative strip club business after he left the cobbles.
But he faced a mass walk-out at his Secrets club after staff claimed their pay had been cut.
Back in 2019 the girls were said to have gone on a one day strike after he changed the rules on what percentage they got from punters.
At Secrets, a three-minute nude table dance cost £30. Half an hour with a stripper and champagne was £350.
The dancers claimed their earnings from the club in Hammersmith, West London, were halved. But after the strike the club agreed to make changes, with one stripper saying: “Our strike proved a success and we got what we wanted – fair rights and wages.”
Chris, then 61, went on to get engaged to one of his club’s dancers – 21-year-old Robyn Dellabarre, and celebrated with a party at the club.
Bedded five dancers… in a week
Blue star Lee Ryan has never been one to shy away from controversy.
But during his 2014 stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house he confessed to being banned from a strip club for bedding five of its dancers on five consecutive nights.
In a conversation in the house Lee confessed: “I walked into a club once right, I mean this is back in the day, I was a lot younger, I mean I would never do this these days.
“I walked in there right, this is probably one of the worst things I’ve ever done, I got five girls’ numbers when they were all dancing, I got the fittest girls’ numbers that were in there.”
Then he went on to say he slept with them all on consecutive days from Monday to Friday.
But when the girls compared notes and realised what he had done, they weren’t best pleased with him.
Lee then said he was subsequently banned from the club for some reason.
A-lister gets shirty
Back in 2010 Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland’s night out at Stringfellows came to a rather abrupt end.
The actor was said to have been tossed out of the London club shirtless and drunk after an altercation with the bouncers.
The Emmy and Golden Globe award-winner, best known for his role as Jack Bauer in TV series 24, was described by onlookers as “absolutely screamingly paralytic” and was put in a headlock by security as he lashed out during a drinking bender.
But club owner Peter Stringfellow later played down the incident, writing on his blog: “(Sutherland) had a wonderful time, was incredibly charming to all the staff, very generous to all the girls and made friends with my security people.
“Around about 3.15am he decided it would be very funny to take his shirt off. When it was explained to him very gently that that was the job of the girls and not the customers he burst out laughing. His friend thought that this would be a good time for them to go home.”
Stripper’s undercover mission
Stringfellow was the undisputed king of the strip clubs – until a new rival club started to steal his girls and his crown.
Crowds were flocking to the new Spearmint Rhino club in Camden – leaving Peter and his scantily clad dancers in an empty club.
So he hatched a daring plan to foil the opposition.
Peter sent one of his longest-serving dancers as an undercover spy to get a job at Spearmint Rhino to find out what all the fuss was about and why the girls there were earning so much money.
But the cunning plot failed miserably. The dancer quickly realised she too could earn more money at Spearmint Rhino, where the girls were offered mega money for full nudity, and promptly never returned to Stringfellows.