UndressedToKill.com

Some conflicting reports about Forresters and whether it's still open. It's a long established venue on the seafront in Southend.

65 Marine Parade, Southend On Sea, Essex, SS1 2EN. 01702 467927

I thought it was an entertease venue, but it's not on their website now.

There's been a threat of closure for the last few years, as detailed in the report below from the Basildon and Wickford Times.

Can anyone fill us in?

ooOOoo

Southend: Go-ahead for Marine Plaza
From the archive, first published Friday 16th Dec 2005.

Southend Council has agreed in principle to a landmark seafront redevelopment of the former Dizzyland amusement park and surrounding site.

But many councillors expressed serious concerns with much of the details in the plan, presented to full council.

They agreed on only to agree to the principle of redeveloping the site, off Marine Parade, Southend, which would also involve replacing the Forresters pub and The Ship hotel.

This will allow the council's planning officers to enter into negotiations with developer John Remblance to ensure new proposals can suit both parties.

The plans include a 100-bedroom four-star hotel, casino, 126 flats, cafe/bistro, food hall, bars and a nightclub.

In late November, the development control committee deferred a decision on the plans, opting instead to let the full council debate them.

* Full story and reaction in Friday's Echo

The Forresters is very much alive. Acts booked by Starstrippers aka JulieK
http://www.juliekdancer.co.uk.

As with Image (next door), only one girl (Laura Lee) turned up on Sunday.

The other girl was supposedly "on the train".

Strange - the journey only takes about an hour from London and 60 minutes later she still hasn't arrived. I had travelled down myself.

Apparently due to no shows from the agency mentioned higher up, the girls are now from Promises.

In recent times Julie K and Sammy Marshall have supplied the girls.

In truth, the girls supplied by Sammy were Promises girls.

The Julie K website is down but the rota on the Forresters site http://www.foresters-southend.co.uk/rota.htm
is still in Julie K's Starstrippers format.

Julies site is at http://www.starstrippers.net/index.htm

Does anyone out there really know at what time strip starts here? - the Forresters website says it's 8pm but on two recent visits it's been gone 8:30 with no hint of strip action - apart from the rather ambigious sign outside saying 'strip here tonght'!.

The answer is normally the same as other venues - when the minimum numbers of punters are in the bar. This is usually 6.

On recent visits to Southend, the competition with Image next door means that they are both struggling to meet the numbers needed early on in the evening.

I went to this venue in the summer.

It is a pretty large pub with the bar in the middle of the room and a pool table to the right.

One thing different about it is that the gents toilets are outside

It is also strange in that there is a large seating area outside where people come to sit at the seaside and have a drink.

It must be a shock to see a nice pub with people sitting outside and go and join them and when you pop in to the pub to get a drink, there is a naked lady wandering around! Several people came in whilst we were there who probably weren't expecting that.

During the day, there were 2 girls on and it was the first time I had been in a pub with the dancers walking around and it was a novel experience. I liked it best when the girl got on the pool table we were using to show herself off, although she may have moved some of our balls.

There is a small room where you can dance with the girls.

Overall, it was a nice friendly pub and a pleasant way to spend an hour whilst down at the seaside.

Walkaround strip with use of the pool table? Reminds me of the glory days of the Crown & Shuttle...

Excellent shift yesterday.

Drove down expecting to see Joy (having checked the rota) but not to be.

(Little) Lou was working with a tall, thin, strawberry blonde girl called Charlie.

Lou was superb in the walkaround format starting alternate dances at opposite ends of the bar.

The size of the bar makes it difficult for new girls and Charlie didn't manage to get to all the punters after removing her g-string.

Most of the audience were moving backwards and fowards between here and Image next door.

As winter is now here, the toilets are inside.

The new rota for February shows only one girl per shift for most of the week.

Two girls at the weekend only.

Audience figures have been down recently but can only get worse if the girl isn't popular.

It will eventually show the full rota.

Foresters get their girls from 2 different agencies, shown in different colours. One of them always seems to get their girls' rota uploaded before the other. Possibly they manage the website for Foresters?

Simon

Went in here for the first time ever Saturday 30th. Knew one of the girls working there so went to see her there. This is a 45 minute drive for me but found a plesent pub, about 40 customers and 3 girls. Traditional walkabout but because of the large bar you only really get to see a small amount of each girl and that is really my only criticism.

Funnily enough during my one and only visit met three customers from the axe two of which I knew.

Private Dances £10 via a voucher scheme and good value for money, they are held in a small room that leads to the DJ booth.

I for one will hapilly go back especially if a certain girl is working.

For Info - This like the Ship next door will no longer have girls of a weekend until after the summer and is expected to start again around October / November. Their website will be updated nearer the time.

Not sure when it started but there is now a new website
www.foresters-southend.com
done by Sammy Marshall, who supplies half the Foresters girls.

It looks slightly more professional than Star Strippers'
www.foresters-southend.co.uk
with its "Auditions for new girls in Jan 2009" greeting you on the front page.

At the moment
-.com
shows both lots of girls for July and Sammy's girls for August.

-.co.uk
shows both lots of girls for July and nothing for August.

Each site lists their girl first, of course. The joys of competition.

Simon

ps Any chance of correcting the Undressedtokill topic from Forresters to Foresters?

Paid a visit tonight, very quiet for a Thursday but with only two girls working it was very relaxed had a few good vfm dances whlst here.
Will still come back every now and then even though it is an hour journey.

Shame the places in town can't be like this

Well I am here on a Wednesday devoid of customers would be an understatement. All 6 of us looking a bit bored. No sign of seeing any of the girls in 20 minutes I have been here. I know they are here, just not in the bar.

Shame I normally enjoy my visits here. will wait a bit to see if things improve.

Well it did pick up a bit, it got to 15 or so customers from about 9:30 till 11. No real atmosphere though but the advantage of so few people is the girls went round and back to each customer so vfm for a pound was probably the best I have had.

Had a couple of private dances that were good at £10.

Despite the poor start to the evening I like the Foresters generally and will go back every now and then.

Julie K has her final appearance at the Forresters on 24th December.

Details here: http://www.foresters-southend.co.uk/

End of an era for me

Well this is the first Saturday since the New Ship closed and what a transformatioon in numbers of punters. Have been here since 7 40pm and now 11 50pm and has been at least 30 customers all the time. A lot of punters used to flit between here and the ship and of course that has stopped now.

With the Ship closed, the Foresters are now starting to have dancers all day on Friday and Saturday (1pm-1am so the sign in the pub states), with an extra shift from around 4pm til 8pm.

I went along yesterday afternoon at 3pm intending to see the last hour or so of the lunchtime shift and the beginning of the next shift but due to a mix up by the agency things didn't quite go according to plan.

When I first got there, only 1 girl had turned up for the lunchtime shift but then at about 3.15 another 2 girls appeared, ready to start work at 3.30. The lunchtime shift girl duly departed at 3.30, and the other 2 girls did a couple of dances each. By then it was around 4.15pm, when suddenly another 3 girls appeared from behind the curtain, ready to dance! Just before this, another girl came in ready to get changed and start work, giving a total of 6 dancers!

After some deliberations between the dancers and a guy who presumably was from the agency, the 2 girls who had first danced at 3.30 then got dressed and left, along with the other girl who had come in but hadn't had a chance to change!

This left us with 3 dancers, who were performing to the (diminishing) crowd when I left around 5.30!

I hope the Foresters perseveres with the extra girls on Fri / Sat, though from my experience on Saturday afternoons, the regulars gradually come in up to 3.30, then gradually drift away so that by 5, only a few are left. I'm not sure the middle shift will be a success unless it is given time. Maybe an alternative would be to add an extra girl to both the lunchtime and evening sessions, and extend the lunchtime one to end at 5, then have an hour or 2 break until the evening shift.

Was there myself from 7 45. Last of previous shift continued until 8 30 just doing private dances. Three girls were supposed to work, one was new and went home after an hour leaving 2 girls. Was quite busy most of the night and the continued until 12 30. The schedule was all over the place for the whole weekend I popped in today for
about 30 minutes and one girls expecting to work was not there. The two on the schedule were present.

Was here Friday as well and the three shifts worked well then. Seems as if just getting the agency to get it right is all that is required.

Not worth making a trip to -- needs some new management.

Was in Southend last Saturday night so popped into the Forresters. It was very busy -- probably 150 customers. Music was good and I thought that it would be a fun night.

But it was about an hour between the floor dances. Trouble was that at least half the customers seemed to want to argue with the girls about the pound in the pot! I guess they didn't know what to expect -- no door fee and no signs around. And no security men helping them decide to make their small contribution.

And the PDs were no better -- bright white lights and it just felt like you were in the corridor!

A shame really, because this place should have been really good -- if all the customers readily paid up, then this would be quite an earner for the girls. Then there would be more than 2 of them on and the floor shows would come round more quickly. With more girls on, they'd need a bigger/better private area, but it would pay for itself quickly!

Won't be back here until its under new management.

Don't be put off by one bad visit - the Foresters feels very different on a warm sunny Saturday when there are a lot of daytrippers in there, not a typical strip pub crowd. I was there in the afternoon and the floor dances were not as frequent as usual, and it did get tiresome watching the one off strip visitors gawping as if they have never seen a naked woman before.

Interesting to note that most of the regulars don't seem to go there on days like last Saturday.

I visit here fairly frequently and am there tomorrow evening. I am familiar with the way the weekend punters can be unfamiliar with the way a strip pub operates and the regular girls have just learnt to deal with it.

For me as I always sit away from the main crowd I don't really get bothered by the issues that arise. For the girls it can be a very good night on a Saturday in terms of earnings but they do get fed up with the time it takes to collect.