Following its move out of The Hoist, I’d been looking forward to visiting the all new Fetish Freak shop ever since hearing the lovely Jonathan had secured new premises in Oval. You can find his new store on Bolton Crescent, bordering Kennington Park. It’s pretty easy to miss, as like many other fetish shops in London, the outside decor is very discrete, and just a couple of window vinyl decals will let you know of its presence. If you need more help, it’s next to the fish shop!
Visitors to his previous store within the arches of the Hoist on South Lambeth Road will remember the low ceiling arch crammed full of all the goodies you could possibly imagine. The new store has a very different feel, predominantly because of the fact there is natural light coming in through the windows! This does take away some of the ‘cave of wonder’ aspect of the old store’s charm, but this about the only con in a sea of pros.
At the time of visiting there was still quite a bit of stock to put out, and he may well tweak the layout here and there, but for the time being nearly everything has its place and the shop works well for casual browsing.
The shop continues to cater for all essentials, with a little stand with a good variety of poppers, and a whole shelf area of lube and gear care products. One of these care products was a mystery unlabelled bottle supplied by a friend of his, which having tried I’m quite excited about (a review is coming up).
The selection of sex toys available continues to be impressive, as they take up quite a sizeable space along one wall, if you want a training plug, or a large vinyl gnome to shove up your fundament, he’s got them all. Wide ones, thin ones, long ones, stubby ones, there’s a dildo or a plug for every arse.
With the additional height to the store now available, Jonathan was keen to point out that the could now display full length rubber suits with no problem. The suits themselves are excellent, and use a gauge of rubber slightly thicker than your usual shop bought off the peg rubber item. The quality is top notch as well, with decent seams and a nice style. At the moment he only has them in classic all black.
In addition to the full suits, there’s a good range of accessories also, with shorts, jocks, tops and shortie suits. Nothing like running your hand through the rails and feeling it all up! Well, it’d be better with boys in them, but hey!
He continues to stock hoods and gasmasks, and I was quite merrily ogling a very smart example of a British S6. He also has Nick’s (@moniesoffun on Twitter) customised hooded masks with Mohawks, though at the time I visited he was wondering where to actually put them! There are a number of nicely moulded rubber hoods, including a lovely filthy urinal hood for those into a good bit of watersports.
Similar to the rubber, there’s a decent selection of leather gear too, in the form of shorts, a variety of chest and fuller harnesses and some nicely made jocks. He’s got collars and belts too, perfect for puppies and their Masters!
For those not into the rubber and leather on offer, there’s a good selection of cloth jocks and other underwear, and as ever there are a decent number of pairs of worn in boots available. There’s some great offers to be had on his sale rail too, with some old Master U leather stock from the closed down store now being offered at a fraction of the price. I’d recommend that if it’s even close to fitting, buying it and getting it adjusted as you won’t get the same stuff anywhere else for the same price, or in fact at all, as this particular leather used was unique to the store.
If you haven’t met him already Jonathan is an utterly lovely chap, and has been in the business for donkey’s years. As a result, if you live in London you’ve probably already met him!
For those who find the location a little out of the way, he also runs a concession in The Eagle bar on Kennington Lane, stocking a smaller selection of essentials. UPDATE: Jonathan has now moved out from the Eagle to focus on his new store, the decision was a happy one and all is well!
Of course, a good majority of those people reading this likely do not even live in London, and many will not even get to visit. To those people people I would recommend checking out his website at http://fetishfreak.co.uk.
OPENING HOURS:
Sunday 12pm-5pm
Monday 11am-6.30pm
Tuesday CLOSED
Wednesday 11am-6.30pm
Thursday 11am-6.30pm
Friday 11am-6.30pm
Saturday 11am-6.30pm