Mark Blunden is allowed inside an all woman sex shop to hear about the staff’s work with the NHS and the erotic goods

SEX sells, but at Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium they’re also using it for medicinal purposes.
The store, in Coronet Street, Hoxton, recently celebrated – with typical fanfare and glamour – its 13th birthday.
But it’s the company’s pioneering work with the NHS that marks its coming of age.
The past year has seen Sh! helping the Royal United Hospital in Bath research the use of vibrators in the post-surgery vaginal dilation process. The technique is particularly useful in gynaecology and following ovarian cancer operations.
Further, London hospitals, including UCLH and Bart’s, are working with Sh! to discover the benefits of vibrators and the University of West England is studying a new vaginal measuring device with help from the team.
Research and development manager Angel said: “We have been using vibrators in healthcare settings and there’s the potential to get a pleasant activity out of something which is quite gruesome. There’s also a lot of work done on the psycho-sexual side, for example when people have never been able to achieve orgasm or are having problems with their sex life.”
Back at the Hoxton store, the clientele is strictly female and there’s not a rain mac or sheepish-looking bloke in sight.
When the girls celebrated the store’s 13th anniversary last month, founder Kathryn Hoyle explained how attitudes have changed since Sh! began its sexual odyssey in 1992.
She described how a Chardonnay-fuelled mission to Soho’s sex shops caused a radical rethink about how adult products are marketed to women.
Ms Hoyle said: “When we went looking around Soho, people were really surprised to see women in sex shops. At that time there just wasn’t anywhere that was female-friendly. Now 13 years later our oldest customer is 82 years old.
“Sh! is a special place because we were the first shop like this and first to recognise women can be consumers of sexy stuff.”
From offering their service to a small circle of women, the erotic empire is now so vast it boasts a client database of thousands, with customers as far afield as Hong Kong.
From toys to “specialist” underwear and every conceivable type of manual, Sh! is a one stop-stop-sex shop and the only one of its kind in the UK. It is the brainchild of Ms Hoyle and business partner Sophie Walters. Ms Walters said: “Sh! is all about making the customer feel comfortable.
“Lots of them come in and we’ll have a good old natter. It’s the combination of support and sexiness because we know it can fill people with trepidation coming in.”
Although single chaps and groups of men are barred, gents fear not – you are allowed in with a female companion.
The success of Sh! can be tracked alongside the success of one of its most popular sex toys – the Jessica Rabbit vibrator of Sex and the City fame.
The JR, formerly the Roger Rabbit, was renamed by Sh! so it was more enticing for women.

• Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium is at 39 Coronet St, N1. Call 020 7613 5458 for details.