That’s how Stück, a new venue in Dalston, describes itself.
asserted
Stück → ’ → itself
But what exactly does that mean?
asserted
that → mean → what
Opened by the teams behind Playbody, a party collective, and fetish club Klub Verboten, which calls itself “a provider of contemporary pro-pervert spaces”, it’s only really when knowing these names that it becomes clear that Stück has connections to the kink scene.
asserted
Stück → open → scene
So, when they talk of a space between the work and play, they’re talking about a co-working space that doubles as a sex club.
asserted
that → talk → club
Co-founders Karl Verboten and Hanny Amin make it sound less seedy and actually rather wholesome.
asserted
it → make → ?
“Most places where you find human connection and friendship, you also find ketamine,” says Verboten.
asserted
Verboten → find → ketamine
For these two sober club kids, Stück was born out of a desire for connection lasting beyond the early hours of a hazy weekend.
asserted
Stück → bear → weekend
“We wanted to create a space that allows for human connection seven days a week.
asserted
that → want → connection
When you think of the outside world, it’s normal that a local bowling club, for example, has a clubhouse.
asserted
club → think → clubhouse
“It’s so normal that people who unite over a thing, that they have a space,” he says.
asserted
he → ’ → space
Stück, then, is positioned as the clubhouse for London’s kink world, where you can find your latex-clad Saturday-night connection working on a pitch deck at 2pm on a Tuesday.
asserted
connection → position → Tuesday
But behind the doors of Stück, the lines between work and play are undeniably blurred.
asserted
lines → blur → work
The café, which is open to the public, looks like any other beautifully designed space in Hackney offering free wi-fi, with people scattered around on laptops.
asserted
people → look → laptops
But next to them on their left is a swing, and on their right is a kind of medical examination bed with stirrups and restraints, looking like something David Cronenberg would dream up.
asserted
Cronenberg → look → something
For £45 a month, membership opens up a second floor populated by bed-like cushioned blocks and handles on the wall.
asserted
membership → open → wall
Read More
It also gives people access to “happenings”, such as breathplay workshops or “a day fest for sexual edging and body worship”.
asserted
It → read → edging
For Amin, her dream is that people will “spend the whole day here and have so much different stuff to do that it doesn’t make them bored,” she says.
asserted
she → spend → stuff
“We’re not a place where someone gets fisted while ordering a coffee”
asserted
someone → ’re → coffee
It’s a day-to-night concept that the founders see as missing from the UK landscape, unlike in Europe where cafés become bars with opening hours from 7am to midnight.
asserted
cafés → ’ → midnight
Verboten feels that in the UK, business restrictions implement blocks to community.
asserted
restrictions → feel → community
“Local authorities over the years became gatekeepers,” he says.
asserted
he → become → years
Products need to be categorisable.
asserted
Products → need → ?
“They clearly need to understand you’re this and then this applies.
asserted
this → need → ?
You’re a bar and then this condition applies.
asserted
condition → ’re → ?
Creativity and humans just flow in a different way.
asserted
Creativity → flow → way
“We’re not a place where someone gets fisted while ordering a coffee alien community, bringing together the creative freelancers that generally populate the club and kink scenes, and giving them a space in daylight.
asserted
that → ’re → daylight
“
But where does sex fit in?
asserted
sex → fit → ?
And is it ever right to mix work with that much pleasure?
asserted
it → mix → pleasure
The Stück team are coy about the role sex plays in the venue.
asserted
sex → play → venue
Verboten says, “We’re not a place where someone gets fisted while ordering a coffee.”
asserted
someone → say → coffee
Confirming that there are solid boundaries and separation enforced.
asserted
separation → confirm → ?
“This space is not particularly about play or people expressing themselves freely at any given point.”
asserted
space → express → point
But also says, “We’re leaving the doors open,” adding that a benefit for membership is that “if they want to have some space for themselves, [they can] just be with someone else upstairs.”
asserted
they → say → someone
According to Char Srahan, Wellbeing Manager at PwC, more complex and nuanced considerations need to be taken into account.
uncertain
considerations → accord → account
“It’s less about, is sex near work appropriate? and more what happens when the boundaries and the power structures of work are imported into a sexual environment,” she says.
asserted
she → ’ → environment
“If freelancers are connecting and someone could potentially give you a really important introduction or commission, what happens when the person you’re saying no to today in a sexual space is actually the person you’re asking for work tomorrow?
uncertain
you → connect → work
“The main issue is power and consent when professional relationships, the people who control opportunities, overlap with sexual relationship.
asserted
who → control → relationship
“A freely chosen sexual interaction could have professional consequences, so unless there are huge safeguarding rules, explicit consent rules and confidential complaints procedures, it’s just an inherent risk,” says Srahan.
uncertain
Srahan → choose → consequences
Keeping the sex safe
At Klub Verboten, safeguarding protocols are put in place with specialist training in collaboration with LGBTQ+ anti-abuse charity Galop and Safer Sounds, an organisation that works with the Metropolitan Police Service and London Councils on their Welfare And Vulnerability Engagement scheme.
asserted
that → keep → scheme
There is a formal complaints procedure in place that members can access.
asserted
members → be → that
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
