The Streatham Society
  • Home
  • Blogs & Posts
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Publications
  • Donations
  • Membership
  • Events
  • Guided Walks
  • Virtual Self Guided Walks
  • Photo Gallery
  • Research and Queries
  • Planning and Regeneration
  • Heritage and Conservation
  • WW1 Roll Of Honour
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Instagram posts
  • Archive News
  • Members' Page

‘Me morals is low. But me ethics is high’

23/12/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
On This Day 24th December 1932 Cynthia Payne was born

Cynthia Diane Payne (1932–2015), madam, was born Cynthia Diane Paine on 24 December 1932 at 67 London Road, Bognor Regis, Sussex, the elder daughter of Nelson Arthur Paine (1904–1979), hairdresser, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Light. Her father was mostly absent, working as a ladies’ hairdresser on the Union Castle Line.

To clear debts, and provide for her son Darrell, Payne soon supplemented her income from waitressing. A regular customer, who proved to be a prostitute, asked to rent her flat when she was out in the evenings. Payne soon joined the profession herself. Her preferred advertisement in telephone boxes was ‘Erections & Demolitions’. Her property empire grew to four flats and then to a small house in Edencourt Road, Streatham, where she adopted the style ‘Mrs’.

She bought Cranmore, a substantial house in a better part of Streatham at 32 Ambleside Avenue, Payne had established the style of business that was to bring notoriety. Her monthly ‘parties’ at the ‘House of 1001 Delights’ would begin with a pornographic display and enough food and drink to lift the spirits. The men would ask a girl to ‘go upstairs’. A friend suggested she should charge, so she innovated with counterfeit-proof twenty-year-old Luncheon Vouchers for which men paid up to £25, according to services required. There were discounts for the old, the disabled, and the impotent. She tried to restrict ‘guests’, as she called them, to the over-forties; they were more appreciative and less trouble than their unleashed juniors. She booked a suitable girl to make a man of son Darrell on his sixteenth birthday. He made a career in accountancy.

Cranmore grew busy. No neighbours complained, but the police observed the house and counted 249 men and 50 women going in. They were distracted by the dustbins, where they had spotted ‘a “female type” of a notably masculine disposition bringing out the refuse’ (Bailey, 2). On 6 December 1978 the police arrived with a warrant to investigate what they believed to be the illicit sale of alcohol. Payne’s instinct was to invite them in, but they were transfixed by the sight of a naked black woman coming down the stairs and a queue of men going up, with many more huddled in the hall in various stages of undress—in all, fifty-three men and thirteen women. The men included local worthies such as the vicar. When the police asked his reverence some questions, he said, ‘I demand to see my solicitor’, adding, ‘who is in the next bedroom’ (The Independent, 17 Nov 2015). It was later alleged the partygoers included some of the highest in the land. Mrs Payne was affronted when asked for names: ‘Me morals is low. But me ethics is high’

She died at King’s College Hospital on 15 November 2015, of heart problems exacerbated by diabetes. She received a humanist funeral at Streatham Park Cemetery on 9 December. Her wealth at death £1,269,315 net: probate, 25 April 2016, CGLPA England & Wales
​

Source: Christine Hamilton.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Mark Bery, Secretary Streatham Society

    Archives

    May 2025
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020

Next Meeting





Our next  talk is  on the 1st July  2025 a talk on Streatham's Sleeping Beauty by David Harvey and Liz Burton 








​

Social media & email

Picture