Parents’ fury at lap-dance hoarding on Gospel Oak school route

Published: 2 September, 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

A GIANT billboard showing a scantily clad model has outraged parents whose children will pass it on their way to a Gospel Oak primary school.

The advertisement for lap dancing chain Secrets, which has clubs in Swiss Cottage, Holborn and Euston, has appeared in Gordon House Road, close to Gospel Oak primary, in recent weeks.

The 15ft billboard features a model wearing a revealing bra next to the words “Your fantasy begins at Secrets table dancing”. It offers a free pass to anyone who logs on to its website.

The hoarding went up during the summer break, and has yet to be seen by the hundreds of children who will pass it on their way to and from school from next week. 

But it has already brought protests from parents who feel it is too graphic to be located so close to a primary school.

Cordelia Brown, whose daughter has recently left Gospel Oak primary, said she was “horrified” by the advert.

“Not only is this ­troubling image inappropriately positioned opposite a primary school but it is also located on the main path used by youngsters from the train station to the local secondary schools,” she said. “The message it is sending out to teenage boys is that women are a commodity that can be bought, and to teenage girls that it is desirable to appear like that.”

Fellow parent Lisa Long added: “It is a huge poster of a woman with her breasts near enough hanging out, right next to a primary school. It is clearly not appropriate.”

The Advertising Standards Authority said there were no specific rules regarding nudity in adverts or distances from schools but codes existed covering decency. Context is taken into account when complaints are made.

Imogen Sharp, chair of Gospel Oak Primary School Parents’ and Teachers’ Association, said: “Lots of families and young children walk along that road every day to get to school. It is quite obvious that such adult advertising is completely inappropriate so near to a primary school and should be removed.”

Stephen Less, who owns Secrets nightclubs, said: “We took up a number of hoardings with a hoardings company and we didn’t choose where they were going. We were just given the spaces available. This was just unlucky rather than intentional and if we do this type of advertising again we’ll do our best to make sure they are not near a school.” 

A Camden Council spokeswoman said that once initial planning consent was granted for an advertising hoarding, the council had no ­control over the subject matter of advertisements. 

“It is therefore something that people will have to take up with the Advertising Standards Authority,” she added.