Sex Museum in London

Learn how to reach orgasm, kiss, and spank.

Apr 17, 2007 Mari Nicholson

Piccadilly's new Academy of Sex at the Trocadero Centre aims to educate the public while they have fun, so says the spokesperson for Amora.

Tomorrow, April 18th, London's first Sex Museum opens at 13, Coventry Street, Piccadilly where in the basement of The Trocadero Centre (just off Leicester Square) the Amora Sex Academy London, as it is called, will be open for business.

Billed as an academy for sex and relationships it launches itself into the counselling field with a mission to educate the public in the ways of love in “an informative and fun environment, non-boring and non-sleazy". One wonders whether this will be possible, given the venue, near Soho, and so close to a lot of "alternative" entertainment places. It may walk a tight-rope between Benny Hill and Dr. Ruth, only one of whom can be taken slightly seriously.

Promising to take the visitor on a journey through the various fields of attraction, love, relationships, and to teach kissing techniques before moving on to more intimate fields, it will either be a hot and steamy summer in London or a cold, clinical experience. My bet is on the former.

The Sex Academy is the first attraction of its kind in the world, a sort of one stop shop for information on sex. There are explicit interactive videos, like the acrylic model of a bent-over man whom you are invited to spank, and a plaster cast of a women whose built-in erogenous zone digital sensors (the.G spot) is waiting to be discovered. There is a wall of sex toys whose use will be demonstrated by models (via videos). Other walls are covered in images of attractive young men and women which leads one to think that this museum is a purely commercial venture rather than one desiring to educate people in the ways of love, as is claimed.

Will the educational content win over the titillation content of the Museum? Is the commercial bias too evident? The directors feel that the word “Academy” in the title moves this Museum away from the sleaziness of those in Amsterdam in Holland, and New York, and as proof of their sincerity, point out that Amora has brought in guest experts in the form of GPs, sex counselors, and others in the advisory field, to oversee the exhibits. However, many feel that by placing itself right in the heart of the tourist hot-spot of Piccadilly in London, the battle for those who would most benefit from a museum like this has already been lost.

Open daily from 11 a.m. - midnight, entry only to over-18s. £15 daytime, £20 nighttime.

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