The sauna had nothing to do with the flats, oddly enough. The sauna was about 300 yards or so, from the building the flats/rooms were in, so people always thought that the sauna had set up the brothels. There again, I never started punting untll the mid 1990s, so there might have been an earlier connection, given that it was London criminals that ran the London sex and sauna trades, in those earlier days - contracted out to the care of 'the Maltese'.
I knew the last owner of the sauna very well and she was still there right through the 1980s, into the late 1980s, maybe early 90s. I was with a partner in those days so always refused Ellie's 'suggestions'. I did have a few haircuts there, though, when she got a barber in to try to give it a bit more 'air of respectability' for the licensing people. Had some great looking girls, in short white coats and black stockings, though. With gap on show, as the coats were never long enough. Always some top buttons missing on the coats, too, for some reason. As the licensing bods were all male, in those days, the licence just got nodded through. It was the only sauna, of the type, in Kensington & Chelsea Borough and nobody ever tried to close it down. In the end it was cost that closed it and a drift away from that type of place.
It's good to see that the website still, as you say - "carries the ethos of local paper and news agents wind ads." As my London/SE regulars have fled to China and unlikely to return, I might well be turning to Ace again. I bump into one advertiser - an original - when she's out and about, in her 1960s Mod gear - Japanese KoKo. All pvc and Carnaby Street. Like a Japanese Jean Shrimpton.
