The Annex sex club at Setchey survived the pandemic and has unveiled an exciting brand new look for clientèle
Setch sex and swingers club The Annex has been hidden away in the small Norfolk village for years, it is known to many and often referred to as "West Norfolk's worst kept secret".
As many non-essential businesses, the club suffered during the pandemic and had to close its doors to clients. Last year saw the club turn into a unique lounge experience offering food and drinks in a covid-safe manner.
Two years on The Annex has re-opened with a host of new playrooms, including one with a spectacular 10-person hot tub.
Wednesday night is a female empowerment 'Greedy Girls' night where the girls are most definitely in charge. As doors opened at 7.30pm guests were milling around the living room area.
As always, it's surprising to see that a sex club has the feel of an intimate dinner party, with sofas, chairs and people sitting around sipping soft drinks.
The hostess, looking glamorous in a summery orange dress, invited the Lynn News to look around the new rooms, which have proven popular among guests. The club now boasts seven rooms as well as a bar area, a cloakroom and a changing room for the hot tub.
She said: "People were reluctant to come back at first because of covid, but now we have a lot of interest and have been busier. There's old and new faces and the new rooms have been a hit."
The classic rooms, which have been at the club for a while, include the 'Moroccan Room' a dimly lit room draped with swathes of red fabric. There's a restaurant in Cambridge on Mill Road that doesn't feel too dissimilar.
New rooms include a 'Gentleman's Club Room', that, in the absence of stocks and something that looks like a Tudor torture device, wouldn't look out of place on the set of Peaky Blinders. There are large velvet bergèr chairs to view BDSM play and several sofas illuminated by shifting laser light patterns. A nice touch to note is a stuffed bear with glasses in the corner, hanging from the celling. We can only assume he likes to paws and watch a paddle spanking from time-to time.
New rooms also span to the upper floor, upon going upstairs you will find the Cinema Room, which has a large projector to show adult movies and sofas for guests to engage in play. The projector casts the videos onto the whole wall for a totally immersible experience.
A couple was at play as my colleague and I watched, and guests got up from their seats to grab another Vimto. A fully dressed man was spanking a partner rather slowly and gently, and I gave my hair a brush. Sex is exciting, but sometimes as a voyeur, you need to work the rooms so to speak. For all we knew, the session could have become more fiery later on, but for us impatient types the pace was too slow.
The next room some 'vanilla' sex was happening, which had attracted a lot of attention. After five minutes of lace and seemingly perfunctory pumping, we decided to drive home and tuck ourselves up with a book.
Some guests explained that the reason for the "lack of action" on this particular night was a big event happening this week called Swingathon 2022, a kind of ComicCon for sex play.
Swingathon occurs in Lincolnshire, and is a convention that attracts hundreds, it did in fact begin yesterday as Greedy Girls was taking place.
People travel far and wide to attend the annual event which is five days of kink and fun.
The Annex has a full range of different themed nights, and is a popular place to go for couples and singles in the area who enjoy to play and let loose.
The summer promises a whole host of naughty fun with the hot tub and wet play area, and a decked smoking area for cooling off.
Pete Woodhouse, Lynn News reporter said: "The hostess acknowledged that there could be no trade affected worse than the sex industry by the social distancing rules of the pandemic.
"As she pointed out, Wednesday night is a school night, and I was surprised how busy it got later on in the evening.
"All walks of life were there and the ordinariness and Englishness particularly struck home. At least one person was wandering around with a cup of tea: how English is that?
"I found the experience to be bizarre and surreal at times. This was magnified by the fact we were observing as journalists, er, on the job, so to speak. So on one level, you are present as an observer (or as a voyeur to some extent). Then on a second level you are reporting events on a work basis. So you're behind two walls of involvement.
"And speaking about English society and culture again, as a nation we have a reputation of being very reserved and uptight about personal, emotional and sexual matters, stiff upper lip rather than stiff.
As a first-time visitor to a sex club, one way of processing this experience was to find amusement, and Eve and I had to nudge each other once to stop laughing during the light BDSM session. Laughter is one way to deal with potential embarrassment after all, just ask Ricky Gervais or Steve Coogan.
They say comedy can be extremely close to tragedy. At the same time sexuality can be close to absurdity and this did occur to me more than once at The Annex."
Whatever you think of swinging, sex clubs and play there will always be a place for it in society. Demand for sexual experiences and spaces has increased in recent years as polygamy and open relationships have become more commonplace. Lynn has little to offer by way of sex clubs, and strip clubs some would argue, are a totally different animal. The Annex has survived due to the innovation of it's proprietors, the loyalty of it's clients and the simple fact that if you live in a city or a tiny leafy village in Norfolk - sex sells and always will.
Events can be booked on the Annex website and range from day to night.
