People walk past it every day and never notice. To them it's perfectly ordinary, just another basement flat in a street of white-painted terraces sandwiched between Kensington High Street and the King's Road.
Except that this flat houses a male brothel. Inside, there is an anteroom where up to a dozen 'boys the term is universally used among them , mostly in their twenties, lounge on a sofa watching satellite television. There are four bedrooms here, recently reduced from five to accommodate an office. A boy who calls himself Rita acts as receptionist, accountant and maitre d' for the night. The atmosphere is musty; the smell of polish barely conceals a whiff of something cooked a while ago.
But it's spotlessly clean, even if the flock wallpaper and cheap prints seem out of place for this salubrious west London address. At any given time, up to 20 addresses in London offer escort and massage services for men, with men. Fifteen seem to stay the course and, of these, four are known for offering sex on the premises.
There were five until last year, when the owner of 'Rome, a few streets away from Kensington Town Hall, was jailed for credit card fraud. According to the Metropolitan Police, the last convictions for running a 'disorderly house were brought in against two men who ran a gay sauna in Streatham they were imprisoned for three and six months respectively.
Some of the boys here are actors between jobs, but there are also office workers who are into the gay club scene in a big way and who cannot finance this lifestyle solely out of a regular wage. Some are heterosexual and have girlfriends. There are variations in the hours that the boys are expected to work. Some of the houses allow the boys to drop in more or less when they like, although they are expected to stay at least five hours and to telephone in advance to check that they are needed.
