Council manages where Hitler failed as historic strip club The Windmill loses its licence after undercover probe
The Windmill, one of the last adult entertainment venues in the West End, has been stripped of its licence by the Westminster Council, citing evidence of 'intimate touching and sex acts'

NOTORIOUS Soho strip club The Windmill boasted it was “never closed” during The Blitz – but now it could be shut down for good.
On Thursday, Westminster Council succeeded where the Luftwaffe failed after stripping the venue of its licence.
Undercover detectives working for an anonymous women’s rights group found the Windmill’s dancers flouted its “no touching” rules and witnessed “intimate touching and sex acts”.
The club has 21 days to appeal.
The Windmill is a relic of the area’s seedy past — its neon “table dancing” sign a reminder of the once-sordid square mile in the heart of London.
Nowadays there are only around five adult entertainment venues left in the West End neighbourhood, and the biggest queues are not to see nude girlie shows but to get into hip restaurants such as Bao and Polpo.
The Sun visited The Windmill this week to find its glory days are long gone. Low lighting hides stained carpets and scuffed leather seats. On the stage, Eastern European dancers sway moodily to music.
A private dance costs £40, a bottle of Becks beer will set you back £8.
One punter said: “I read about the closure so wanted to come and see it on the last night.
“It’s a piece of history. I’d like to say I’m here for the history, but I’m really here for the boobs.”
This famous palace of sin, immortalised in 2005 Judi Dench film Mrs Henderson Presents, started life as The Windmill Theatre in 1931.
Bored widow Laura Henderson bought it to show silent films and later scandalised high society by introducing nudity to the stage.
She and theatre impresario Vivian Van Damm aimed to emulate the success of the Moulin Rouge in Paris and the Ziegfeld Follies in New York.
At the time it was deemed that “if it moves, it’s rude” so to get around the rules the naked girls stood as still as statues as they recreated artistic poses.
The Windmill Girls, who had an average age of 19, were not even allowed to sing in case heavy breathing made their chests move.
They would do six shows a day and whenever a front row seat became available there would be a stampede over the chairs behind to reach it, a phenomenon known as the Windmill Steeplechase.
By the end of the decade The Windmill was known throughout the country, but it was during World War Two that its fame soared.
In 1940 German planes began a year-long bombardment of London. The Blitz forced many businesses and theatres to shut, but not The Windmill. “We Never Closed” was the theatre’s motto — sometimes jokingly changed to “We Never Clothed”.
Van Damm and Mrs Henderson even saw their venue as contributing to the war effort.
Former Windmill Girl Margaret McGrath, aka the Blonde Bombshell of The Blitz, said the girls all pitched in to boost morale.
She said: “The war years at The Windmill were the best of my life, and boy have I had a life. If I could have that time again I’d do it like a shot. It was a privilege to be there. We’d hear the buzzing of the Doodlebugs overhead, but we carried on.”
Troops would line the street, desperate for a glimpse of the girls, who had been elevated to national treasure status after appearing in newsreel footage.
Yet censors still watched the venue like hawks.
Rules introduced in 1940, seemingly aimed directly at The Windmill, stated that theatre-owners must submit photographs of any planned nude poses. They also had to send in scripts detailing performances by clothed singers, dancers and comics.
But wily Mrs Henderson and Van Damm had ways of getting around the inspectors. Officials would tip them off when the senior inspector — the aptly-named George Titman — was on his way.
And if any of the girls had no time to cover up Van Damm would blame any scandalously exposed flesh on poor wartime elastic.
Mrs Henderson died in 1944, leaving the theatre to Van Damm. He continued to support the war effort and even let servicemen through its doors free on VE Day.
Post-war the venue launched the careers of some of the nation’s best-loved comedians.
Stars who got their big break, doing 15-minute comedy sets between the nude shows, included Peter Sellers, Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, Bruce Forsyth and Tony Hancock. The crowd was notoriously difficult. Morecambe and Wise got sacked after just a week for failing to control the hecklers.
And Sir Bruce once said: “They were the toughest audience in the world — if you came on your own, without any girls, they hated you.”
Des O’Connor once dried up on stage there, completely forgetting what his next joke was until one regular yelled: “You tell the one about the parrot next.”
Van Damm died in 1960 aged 71, passing the theatre to his daughter Sheila, a rally driver.
However, the Swinging Sixties had ushered in a host of private members’ clubs where the shows were far more explicit.
The Windmill seemed tame in a neighbourhood which had grown seedier over the decades and it fell out of favour.
It closed in 1964, after more than 30 years of nude shows and spent a decade as a cinema. Then, in 1974, erotica entrepreneur Paul Raymond bought it.
Raymond, known as The King of Soho, owned several strip clubs in the area. He turned it back into a venue for nude shows, putting on titillating plays with titles such as Let’s Get Laid.
In 1994, after a brief spell as a TV studio, the venue was bought by Oscar Owide. He reopened it as a lapdancing club, The Windmill International, it’s present name.
Refusing to have anything to do with its anniversary celebrations, former dancer Jill Shapiro explained: “The Windmill Theatre is now used for such a different purpose that we Windmill Girls have been advised not to compromise our ‘naughty but nice’ wholesome good name by taking part in publicity for it.”
Oscar died last month aged 85 and the business passed to his son Daniel, now battling to keep it open.
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Daniel, 57, said: “As Mrs Henderson used to say, ‘It’s business as usual and the Windmill will never close’.
“We will fight to keep this going. We will sort it out. We’re hopeful the appeal will be successful.
“The Windmill will be back on the map like it was in the good old days — world famous.”