Farewell to the Janus shop

So, here’s a sad sight, snapped on my phone as I wandered round London last weekend:

I’m guessing a fair few of you (especially those in the UK, in your mid-30s or older) will recognise the store concerned, and feel a tinge of sadness hearing of its closure. Back in the pre-internet era, the Janus shop in Old Compton Street was perhaps the first (and often only) place that those of us into spanking visited to buy magazines, books, videos and even the odd (usually not terribly good!) implement. Certainly for me, finding an establishment that specialised in exactly the stuff that fascinated me was a godsend – one of the earliest things that made me realise that I wasn’t alone in my interests.

For a long time in the 90s, it was something of a habit for me to drop into it for a browse whenever I was in London.  I have fond memories, too, of visiting the shop more recently with kinky female friends and watching the confused, nay even panicked, looks on some of the customers’ faces (“There’s a woman in here! She’s young! And attractive!” … and, in some cases… “And she’s on the cover of that magazine I was just looking at!”). And then there was the American friend – a student, staying with us – who asked a chap behind the counter, “What does a girl need to do to get spanked round here?” and was told, “Come back at 6pm and come into the back room with me.” A caning duly ensued!.

I hadn’t actually been in for several years: that probably highlights why the business had become unsustainable. But its closure marks something of the end of an era – perhaps, the final triumph in the spanking world of the web over the printed word. Much as that’s a sign of very positive progress, I do feel rather sad to see it go.

14 thoughts on “Farewell to the Janus shop

  • 27 May, 2011 at 12:11 pm
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    That’s too bad. I had heard of the magazine but didn’t know there was a shop too.

    Although, the name of the shop was a URL, not just ‘Janus’. Another sign of the times.

    Hugs,
    Hermione

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  • 27 May, 2011 at 1:07 pm
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    Yes, Abel, I too have fond mememories of the Janus Book Store, on 40 Compton Street, in London. It was usually my first stop. And a heavenly place to visit. Yes, it’s spanking books were a delight to finger tbrough, and purchase, one or two that I liked. Yes, I will miss it. And I am sure countless more ‘spanking enthusiast’s will do likewise.

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  • 27 May, 2011 at 3:01 pm
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    That is sad. Days out in London always included a trip to the Janus shop. But as Herimone says it’s a sign of the times……

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  • 27 May, 2011 at 6:59 pm
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    Oh wow!!! End of an era or what! I first came across Janus on a newspaper stand at the bottom of Regent street back in 1979 when I was in London for the first time. I spent what to me was a fortune buying all 6 titles he had on the stand and then read them all back to back, in the back seat on the coach up to Glasgow!

    It was the first time I’d ever come across any spanking porn rather than just the occasional spanking reference in vanilla publications!

    Then when I was back in London – oh the agony of deciding whether to venture into Soho at all – let alone into somewhere as sleazy and full of old men in dirty macs as the Janus shop!

    LOL! One guy in the shop tried to speak to me, to ask me if I was interested, and I ran away :-)

    I had for a while (until it got chucked out in a purge :-( a cassette with an audio story, and I tried their cinema booths, but they were too expensive for me. Sadly by the time I got round to being brave enough to try the spanking cinema in (IIRC) Berwick street, it had closed down.

    And then Kane came onto the market, and I plucked up my courage and wrote to George Harrison Marks. When I moved to London in 1984, he invited me to dinner, and it was at his house I rcvd my very first caning, from a male friend of his.

    George himself wasn’t into spanking – he was one of the UK’s best pornographers. A very interesting chap to spend an
    evening with.

    Then of course I made the movie for him and met his daugther (she was then around 15 I think) and as I recall she took over the mag after he died. But I don’t think she was really into spanking either.

    Ah – what memories…. What a shame it’s all gone now.

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  • 27 May, 2011 at 9:02 pm
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    Might be on my own here, but the Janus shop – and, yes, I was a not-infrequent customer for a while – always felt emblematic of the sleazy, backstreet world of the kink in Britain, and I’m not sad to see it closed. It was the last place to go if you wanted to feel that your kink was normal and healthy. I’d like to think that its closing is a sign of things in Britain heading in a more open, brightly-lit, kink-friendly direction, but there’s still a huge way to go.

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  • 28 May, 2011 at 7:14 am
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    I disagree with Paul entirely… The shop itself may have felt to me sleazy, as did the whole of Soho, when I was an unsophisticated young woman who had been told how white slave traders were waiting round every corner of bad old London Town.

    But oh! the sense of wonder, joy and liberation I felt when I saw those first magazines and came to the realisation that I was not insanely and perversely alone in the pleasure I found in contemplating spanking. The sleaziness of the shop made it all the more thrilling – dipping a toe into this fantastic underground world where I was naive certainly, but not a stranger.

    Do I want my kink to feel ‘normal and healthy’… well… it’s hardly ‘normal’ in that this form of sexuality is not the norm. It is not the kind of sexuality that the majority of people engage in. And further to that I would re-iterate what I said about it adding to the thrill of tasting the forbidden.

    ‘Healthy’? I don’t know… I find that a strange word to use. If it is healthier to express one’s sexuality than repress it, then that is at first glance a good thing. But we know that not all kink or pervery is healthy. Asphyxiation, body punches – the more extreme end of the BDSM repertoire.. whilst I would not stop anyone from playing consensually in any way they desire, I (and I speak only for myself here) would not call that kind of play healthy.

    I do not share Paul’s hope that the closing of Janus is a sign of a utopia to come. To my mind, all it signifies is that more people are doing their shopping online, and that the printed word is being supplanted by video.

    As for more kink-friendly…. given what the law-makers have been doing in recent years, given that the media are ever keen to print sleaze and out anyone connected with the scene, given that clubs and munches are being targetted and closed down, when Big Brother is constantly watching, then with regret I say that imo truly we had more sexual freedom back in the 70s than we do now, and the closing of the Janus shop marks the end of an era.

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  • 28 May, 2011 at 7:27 am
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    Domino – I’ll add one other perspective to yours. As I think about it, when I first went into the Janus shop, I was incredibly nervous – looking all around, making sure there was noone near looking at me, terrified of being seen entering such an establishment. After a few years, I was frankly far more blase and didn’t think twice about going in and out – often en route to Patisserie Valerie.

    Interesting, reflecting, on how much less ashamed of my kink I became over that period – and I do think the existence of the Janus shop is to thank in some way for that.

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  • 28 May, 2011 at 9:03 am
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    @domino,

    But oh! the sense of wonder, joy and liberation I felt when I saw those first magazines and came to the realisation that I was not insanely and perversely alone in the pleasure I found in contemplating spanking. The sleaziness of the shop made it all the more thrilling – dipping a toe into this fantastic underground world where I was naive certainly, but not a stranger.

    Yes, the same context, but a very different response for me. Perhaps it had to do with my own sense of discomfort with my kink for quite a while, but the sleaziness of the physical environment, and the furtive browsing of the (almost entirely) male customers, worked very effectively to reinforce the idea that this was something to be ashamed of, and a world I didn’t feel like I wanted to belong to.

    It wouldn’t be fair to suggest that the Janus shop was any better or worse than many others in Soho, of course; or that the situation was one they had much control over. The uneasy relationship between the press, the police, and the kink in Britain almost guarantees an atmosphere of sleaze. So I’m not pointing the finger at Janus specifically. But this was not a place that felt kink-positive to me, no matter how many times I’d been in.

    Do I want my kink to feel ‘normal and healthy’… well… it’s hardly ‘normal’ in that this form of sexuality is not the norm. It is not the kind of sexuality that the majority of people engage in.

    Not a big deal, but I wasn’t suggesting that “normal” equals “majority”. To do that would be to deny that homosexuality is normal, for example. By “normal”, I mean something that’s natural to the individual, and expressible in a way that’s positive for the people involved – not a disorder or pathology, and not something to be ashamed or insecure about. “Normal” is a distribution of behaviour, rather than a single behaviour.

    ‘Healthy’? I don’t know… I find that a strange word to use. If it is healthier to express one’s sexuality than repress it, then that is at first glance a good thing. But we know that not all kink or pervery is healthy. Asphyxiation, body punches – the more extreme end of the BDSM repertoire.. whilst I would not stop anyone from playing consensually in any way they desire, I (and I speak only for myself here) would not call that kind of play healthy.

    Again, not really what I meant. It’s perfectly reasonable to talk about “healthy” expression of sexuality, while acknowledging that there are darker regions at the edges of physical safety and consensuality. Rather than physical health, I was mostly referring to emotional and psychological health as it relates to expression of kink – how it makes you feel, and how it allows the creation and maintenance of strong relationships.

    As for more kink-friendly…. given what the law-makers have been doing in recent years, given that the media are ever keen to print sleaze and out anyone connected with the scene, given that clubs and munches are being targetted and closed down, when Big Brother is constantly watching, then with regret I say that imo truly we had more sexual freedom back in the 70s than we do now, and the closing of the Janus shop marks the end of an era.

    As I said, there’s definitely a huge way to go. The ‘net is a huge force for good, but Britain does still have a completely dysfunctional relationship with the very idea of kink, and I’m not sure where and how that changes.

    Reply
  • Pingback: Two Goodbyeeees – Burl Apsack? – Farewell Janus – Blogs Transfered – And Some Beer Mugs For Subs « SPANKEDHORTIC II

  • 31 May, 2011 at 1:20 am
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    As a man aged 53 I made a point of visiting Old Compton Street & Janus on virtually every London trip I made & would feel a real buzz of excitement as I spent an hour or more deciding which magazines to take back home. Fond memories !

    MarQe

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  • 5 June, 2011 at 3:08 pm
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    Oh I am sad to read the Janus shop is gone too, if not hugely surprised I guess. It played a formative role in my first steps from guilty secret fantasising to embracing the scene as part of my life, with all the fulfilment, friends and fellow kinksters that has brought :-) A copy of one of their Privilege Club spanking mags purchased on that first visit set me on the (albeit frustratingly long!) road to my first actual spanking. At that time it felt amazing to me that there was a real shop that catered for these interests, which until shortly before I had always believed were a unique and unfortunate aberration of mine, and mine alone! I know that my current partner also found it a key to his kinky journey (tales of bunking off A level classes to make furtive trips into London to visit Janus being amongst our shared anecdotes of how we got to where we are now!). How sad that others treading this path will no longer be able to do the same. I just hope the internet can successfully surplant its role and help people find what they’re looking for. Times may change, but there will always be kink!

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  • 10 June, 2011 at 4:31 pm
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    Thank you for your kind comments regarding the closure of the Janus shop (excluding Paulatnorthgare’s!) It was a sad day for all of us here at Janus but we feel that times have changed and we think that the internet is the place for Janus to expand and return to production of videos and on-line magazine publication. Keep an eye on our site for future developments!

    Tarquin Sergeant
    janusworldwide.com

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  • 12 June, 2011 at 1:30 pm
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    @Tarquin – I wish you every success with Janus Worldwide. A couple of suggestions are :
    Making your entire back catalogue available online (preferably free, or for a small fee)
    Creating a forum for people to chat to each other

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  • 8 July, 2011 at 1:12 pm
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    I have amazing memories of Janus. I used to wander down the street during my lunch hour desperately wanting to step inside but was far too inhibited. However 35 years later I had the experience! All due to ‘coming out’ and finding the most wonderful man to accompany me on the journey of a lifetime. To be inside that haven and wonder about the other people flicking through the magazines was utter bliss. Then a coffee eclair in Patisserie Valerie before home for a sound spanking …

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