Substances found at the Blue Rose in Camden Town

THE last sex shop in Camden Town could lose its licence this week after police said they found prescription sex drugs being sold over the counter.

The Blue Rose has traded in pornography, DVDs, sex toys and lingerie in Kentish Town Road for around 20 years. Camden has said that no new adult stores would be regarded as suitable for the area, but allows the business to renew its permissions as a long-standing shop.

This time, however, the Met Police has called on the Town Hall not to renew the licence after officers said they found substances there that were not allowed to be sold.

Councillors will decide tonight (Thursday) whether it can stay open.

The police said Viagra-like pills, as well as unlabelled bottles of clear liquid that “could be anything”, had been uncovered on visits to the premises in May.

In a report submitted to the Town Hall, Met licensing officer PC Christopher Malone wrote: “This venue has been here for numerous years and the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] have had no reason to object to it in the past.

“However, since the application for renewal has been applied for, the MPS have visited the venue on two occasions and on both occasions have come across breaches of their licence.”

Photos show blister packs of Sildenafil – a medication for erectile dysfunction which helps increase blood flow to the penis and can only legally be prescribed by a doctor or pharmacist, which staff at Blue Rose, PC Malone said, are “definitely not”.

Selling the drug illegally can result in fines or up to two years in prison.

The police report said the shop was selling numerous strengths including 200mg, which is “above the recommended dose and is not considered safe for standard use”, particularly if combined with recreational drugs like poppers.

PC Malone said: “Of concern, was numerous popper type bottles containing a clear liquid.

“Asking the male worker what it was, he stated that it was poppers and not sure why they did not have any writing on the bottles.

“In hindsight and from a policing perspective these little bottles could have contained anything like liquid [GHB] etc.”

The New Journal approached Blue Rose this week but staff did not want to provide a comment.

There is no witness statement from the club in the public papers for the meeting.