At the weekend, I discovered that there is a brothel in my building

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On Friday night, I got back to find a letter adressed to my flat, but to a woman I had never heard of. Illegally, I decided to open it and found out it was an invoice to a woman living at number 18, in the next block along from me, that had been mistakenly turned up at our flat instead.

I told my flatmate that I was going to drop it round, as it was for a fair bit of money, to which he responded "oh, that's the block with the brothel in it, take a look at number 15 as you go past". Apparently, my sexual deviant flatmate had been looking through the local paper and found something called B14ckheath Buddi3s advertised in there. Out of curiosity (he claims) he phoned it up to find out where they were, and it turns out they're at flat number 15, in the next block, only accessible from the outside via a different door and a different stairwell to mine.

So I dropped this girl's letter round, and she was very grateful, and then I went downstairs and took a look at the outside of number 15. Bog-standard flat from the outside, like all the others in the building, but with a small camera installed just above the door, presumably to screen callers. The frosted pane in the door was also covered from the inside with a black binliner. I ran away.

This is fucking creepy. I thought I lived in a nice place, but what with the mentalist flatmate, the woman next door who screams in the night and now the whorehouse in the next block, I'm not so sure. I'm also wondering if anyone else in the building knows it's there.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Side question - what weird/creepy/amusing/bizarre things have you discovered about your neighbourhood. This is only mildly better than finding out that the IRA bomb that blew up a 171 bus in 1996 was made in a house around the corner from my parents place in Catford.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Traffic recorded an album in our village. That is all.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, but I used to live in Faringdon, which is as wrong a place as anywhere. Real-life 1ncest, mafia-style families running the town - its an odd old place. Most people who live there havn't ventured outside of the A420 in their lives.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Have I mentioned I live next door to Simon Le Bon? I hove? Oh.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

simon le bon lives in hove?

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Ho-hum.
In the place where I've been living for the past nineteen years or so (an old Kruschev-time concrete monstrosity of 55 flats), at some point a few years ago there also seems to've been a two- or three-room space of paid-for-carnal-fun. But as it was at the opposite end of the building, I heard about it only after it was shut down, ha...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Crack den in flat on my stairwell, 1998-2000.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

that's pretty strange, matt! i'm more concerned about the fact that your flatmate is calling brothels 'out of curiousity', but hey.

plus, this gives you a chance to meet lots of nice ladies!

the only thing i didn't know about my flat is that apparently the new river runs directly below it. kate told me this yesterday.

― colette (a2lette), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

The flat upstairs from me was just vacated by a 45-y.o. hooker. I still get mail for her. The flat next door is occupied by several 16-y.o. hash-heads who say their "cousin" lives there. I was suspicious of them at first but now when we see each other we're like "aaight" and they even bum cigarettes off me.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

What does the word 'block' mean in the context of the first post?

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 23 February 2004 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Why don't you turn your own flat into a brotherl and give them some competition?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Monday, 23 February 2004 13:00 (twenty-one years ago)

block of flats.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 23 February 2004 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a brothel in my street, although I don't know what number. Two streets down is W4terl0o Street, until recently home of murderer Gr4ham C0utts, and also where the band Chimp and several other bands live. My friend also used to live above a heroin dealer there. Hove is sooo going downhill...

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 23 February 2004 13:11 (twenty-one years ago)

duran duran should highlight its plight.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 23 February 2004 13:13 (twenty-one years ago)

This is where I realize that I've given people lots of bad directions in the last several months.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 February 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The flat I lived in before my current one was on the same stairwell as a brothel. In fact, the brothel was split between two flats; the other flat on the same floor as me, and the one directly below it. The worst thing about it was that they would always chain the stair door open so that their clients could get in without ringing the buzzer. The clients all looked like decent, ordinary men. The workers looked like whores, basically - if you saw someone walking up our street who looked like a stereotypical hooker, then 9 times out of 10 she would be heading in to our stairwell.

I often walk past it, and look up to see if they have the red light on in their window. It's on Nicolson St in Edinburgh, almost opposite the Festival Theatre.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I live a block away from where Nelson Algren, author of "The Man With the Golden Arm" and other gritty crime fiction, used to live.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)

In high school, I lived across the street from my history teacher, and I failed his class twice. I failed no other classes, and in fact was a good student mostly.

― My Huckleberry Friend (Horace Mann), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, the flat I lived in before that one was (according to a plaque that's appeared above the door since I moved out) the place where the fantastically bad poet William McGonagall died.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I lived in this nice apartment in Kingston, Ontario. Above a row of shops (the Hemp store, specifically), and posh restaurants. Lovely, historical old farmhouse building with a loft-style apartments. So at this party, some guy comes up to me and says, "I've been in your place before - it used to be called the Red Chamber". Apparently a few years prior, our home was a S&M/fetish shop. My bedroom was a private, appointment-only room to, er.. 'sample' the merchandise. It was also lovingly called the "butt-plug" room. Cool!

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

In late '96-early '97, I lived in a building 20 secs away from my best friend's place. Last year, he finally got round to telling me a brothel operated in my old building. I was (and am) so jaded, I'd been taking the scores of young women accompanying mondo older guys going in and out, the freely available porn on the building's cable channels and the generally cheap and sleazy faux-glam hotel vibe of the place as standard. And I feel kinda cheated.

― Barima (Barima), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Like maybe there was some sort of Tenants' Discount you could have capitalized on if only you'd known?

― My Huckleberry Friend (Horace Mann), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

we found out that a house we lived in used to have dealers living there. some of their old customers would show up from time to time.

also, turns out that the house next to mine had most of Miss Bliss living there, when they were still smack addicts.

My buddies lived in the co-op in Ann Arbor which once held the White Panther party. Wayne Kramer's room was on the 2nd floor, as was the room that Iggy would regularly crash in.

― Kingfish Beatbox (Kingfish), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I found out that I have a some ponce with asthma living upstairs from me who called campus security on me three times this weekend for smoking, most of the time we fucking weren't.

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Monday, 23 February 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to live in a barracks room one block away from the US National Security Agency. Before that I once lived in Melrose Hall at the University of Tennessee, and there was at least one gay prostitute on the third floor that I knew about, and a lot of foreign exchange students.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 23 February 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Caitlin, is it in the block above the cafe and the kebab shop, next to the royal bank? i think i know the one you mean.

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 23 February 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i use to live in famous dancer louise lecavalier's old apartment and i would get mail for her!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My aunt's old house was a mink farm.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

my wife grew up in a house formerly inhabited by cranky Nobel Prize-winner Sinclair Lewis. when we lived in NYC we had an apartment across the street from Anna Wintour and saw her taking out the garbage one morning; that (insanely small) apartment had been lived in by actor John Heard previously.

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

My brother's boss went to have a look at the house he grew up in when he was in the area. He told us "I asked if I could come in and have a look at the place, cause I'd not been back there for years. It turns out it's now a brothel. Still, I did get a hand-job in our old kitchen"

― winterland, Monday, 23 February 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick's old flat in W1 had a wanky-spanky lady in the flat directly underneath. They heard whip noises and corresponding male grunts and surprised pain noises.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to do telesales in a flat above a brothel in Putney. It's now a nail boutique with a big ugly red hand advertising the window. Maybe it's a brothel for nail fetishists?

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I lived upstairs from a crack dealer ... in Nebraska. And an alcoholic who looked & dressed like Elvis lived in the basement.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I live next to the Russian (former Soviet Union) Embassy compound in Washington, DC (you can't miss it, so that was never a surprise). On my street apparently one house is occupied by the NSA, who dug a tunnel from that house's basement to create a listening post beneath the embassy's business offices.

The existence of this tunnel and listening post was among the secrets a rogue NSA agent sold to the Soviets, so it appears that the intelligence people never got any authentic information out of it. What I want to know is how the people who dug this tunnel got all the excavated dirt and rocks out of the house without anyone noticing.

Also, if my building looks onto this embassy, do any of my neighbors actually work for the CIA or NSA or in other...surveillance capacities?

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 23 February 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Living in DC, well, yes, they probably do. Also keep in mind that on any given workday DC contains more trained killers per capita than any other metropolitan area in America! Don't forget the constant helicopters.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 23 February 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was a little kid my family lived in a duplex with Amy Carter. One time Jimmy Carter visited and gave me and my brother cookies. I think my cat bit one of his secret service men.

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Monday, 23 February 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

U + K... how's the broth?

― donut bitch (donut), Monday, 23 February 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

My primary school was about 2 minutes walk from Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill (North London), which is where serial killer Dennis Nilsen lived until he was arrested. I'm pretty sure he was active at that time too. It's good to know that he was having sex with, dismembering and cooking corpses at the same moment I would have been eagerly learning how to read and write merely a short walk away.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Monday, 23 February 2004 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Caitlin, is it in the block above the cafe and the kebab shop, next to the royal bank? i think i know the one you mean.

Yup.

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

A FOAF rented a house from notorious Dublin gangland figure THE MONK. He was on the dole at the time and had no problems getting rent allowance.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Like maybe there was some sort of Tenants' Discount you could have capitalized on if only you'd known?

Well, I was 14. Still, since it was around til I was 17, it would've been nice to have known for maximum capitalization purposes, haha.

― Barima (Barima), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a crazy old crack-head hooker who lived downstairs from me in a ground floor apartment who - before getting evicted - would pull the fire alarm in the middle of the night from time to time. After she'd been kicked out she would come into the courtyard and scream at the building in the middle of the night for a few weeks. I still see her hustling just down the street from time to time. I also think she's the one who stole a hanging plant from my fire escape.

It was awful, but this mousy dude moved into her apartment and he plays Peter Gabriel-lite world music really loud and meditates with his blinds up. He's always hanging around the laundry room reading science fiction paperbacks and grinning.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

JUST THE OTHER DAY I ALSO FOUND OUT THAT I LIVED NEXT TO A BROTHEL.......SHIT!!!

― Tim Park, Saturday, 1 October 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

NEIGHBORS GET A DISCOUNT

― a picture of a fat girl hugging Rick Perry, awesome (Matt Chesnut), Saturday, 1 October 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

I lived next to 'Fallen Angels' for several years. Oh, the knocks we used to get on the door from drunk taxi drivers at 4am. We'd lean out of the window and yell 'It's next door! No. 68! This is no.66!' It'd have to be me who said that, because if my girlfriend said it, they wouldn't believe her.

― moley, Saturday, 1 October 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

my first apartment was accross the street from a chinese restaurant/whorehouse. nothing too exciting aside from friends getting propositioned on their way to our place and calling the cops over some domestic (?) violence in the street a few times.

― tehresa (tehresa), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

wait where is this? what chinese restaurant?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

pagoda's on e. main

― tehresa (tehresa), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

i'll take note of that, thanks

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

be sure to ask for the special menu!

― tehresa (tehresa), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

We live near the street where a gruesome murder happened. My mother remembers talking to the murder victim at the park nearby while they each watched their respective children play on the slide, and recognised her later in the newspaper sensationalism. The woman was killed and chopped up by her husband in one of the houses by the park. He was a scientist. I think this explains all.

― salexander (salexander), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

someone used to run a prostitution ring out of one of the first-floor apartments at my place in tucson. not too surprising... it was kind of a scuzzy area.

― faith popcorn (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 1 October 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

When I was working for a large automobile manufacturer in a huge parts warehouse, I was approached by one of the shift foremen, who asked if I'd be interested in making some extra money. Turned out he was running a brothel in the box room.

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

"box room"

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

Apparently the large apt building round the other side of my block is a well-known crackhouse. I'm not sure how this works, considering the strength of the police presence in these parts -- surely the police KNOW and for some reason don't/can't act??

Special Offer 20% Extra Sadness comes from the fact that my neighbor used to teach in Bed-Stuy and had a 6-yr old student who was placed in foster care because his parents whored him out to buy crack. It's a fucked up ol' world, sure enough.

― Laurel, Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

When I was a kid the neighbor 3 houses up was in the paper for being caught in a prostitution sting. They found him with a bathrobe and bottle of champagne hiding under a kitchen cupboard. It was a big deal in a small suburb.

A while back I was visiting the thrift shop 3 blocks from where I now live. There was a line-up because the place also has a soup kitchen and it was a few minutes before opening. I talked to a few people in line and found that a lot of them had just come across the street from the other line-up there. I asked what it was for and found out it's a methadone clinic. Explains a lot, what with all the crazy trafic going down my street even though all of my neighbors are relatively normal non-criminals.

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

my girlfriend and i used to live in an apartment that used to bea brothel... for whatever reason it didn't phase/surprise me at all.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Sunday, 2 October 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

Why? Your girlfriend also charged you money? ;-)

No brothels here, as far as I know.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Sunday, 2 October 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

I grew up on the main cruising strip in my city. Me and my little buddies used to sit on my verandah and laugh at all the johns driving by. We freaked alot of them out, used to get yelled at all the time. It was awesome.

― sffd, Sunday, 2 October 2005 09:36 (twenty years ago)

so many messed up things have occured in my neighborhood over the years and oh so amusing is that the 'hood has a reputation of being posh (but its SO not!)
all happening w/in one block or so of me:
-kids making meth blew up an entire house in the '70s,
-a gang shot and killed someone at a koo koo roo on the corner,
-monica lewinski's parents house is round the corner and they housed her for a time during the *incident* helicopters and reporters clogged up the hood for weeks,
-Nicole Simpson and friend were butchered at her home up the block. To name just a few. And you think your 'hood is bad!

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Sunday, 2 October 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

My neighbor, when I first lived in Paris was a sunny-natured, 40ish, blonde prostitute from the South. She was unfailingly polite to me though she gave me a lot of grief for eating bad food. One evening she knocked on my door to ask if she could borrow salt, and, perhaps since my only experience at that age of bawdy woman knocking on the door was derived from pornographic stories, I froze up. It turns out she really did just want salt. The sound of her bedsprings creaking in the late afternoon used to fill me with a feeling of melancholy.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 3 October 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

a couple of years ago i discovered that i was inside a brothel!!!

― jamie theakston (ken c), Monday, 3 October 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

lots of massage parlours in my neighbourhood, and there seems to be a strip club opening down the street!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 3 October 2005 16:00 (twenty years ago)

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