White Horse strip club shuts after four decades in Shoreditch – due to rising rents

The White Horse, one of Hackney’s four remaining strip clubs, has closed down because of rising rents.

Werwent London, which brought the four-storey building in Shoreditch High Street two years ago, told landlady Sue Bristow it would charge her more in her five-yearly rent review.

She was also offered the chance to be bought out – which she accepted.

Because of Hackney Council’s “nil” policy on more sex entertainment venues opening in the borough, they could not sell their business as a going concern.

The decision made by councillors on the licensing committee in 2011 banned any more strip clubs and sex shops from opening here, but allowed the existing ones to remain, subject to conditions. Ms Bristow’s parents set up the White Horse striptease club when she was six, and she has been running the business with her own daughter Emilie.

The 45-year-old told the Gazette: “It was our life after 38 years. We lived and worked there. It has meant buying houses and moving out.

“I absolutely loved running it. I would have been happy to stay there. We were a busy pub.

“My mum and dad ran the pub and we have been through a couple of recessions – we have been there that long.

“The rent would have gone up significantly. It was unaffordable. We knew we had a good rent but they wanted to put it up extortionately.”

Ms Bristow and her daughter have moved to Waltham Abbey while her mother now lives in Bexhill, Sussex.