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The sex parties coming to a stately home near you

The sex parties coming to a stately home near you

Yahoo21-05-2025

The affluent south London neighbourhood of Dulwich is known for many things. It has a renowned art gallery, prestigious private schools and an idyllic park. Most people don't associate it with 'wax play', naked fire shows and parties stocked with 2,000 condoms. But that's exactly what guests got at Belair House, Dulwich, in April, when it was hired by the 'naughty events' company Heaven Circle.
Not surprisingly, residents were less than impressed to learn that their local Georgian manor house, just a six-minute walk from Dulwich College, was being hired out for sex parties. The East Dulwich Forum, an online message board, was brimming with disgust and outrage and complaints were lodged with the local council.
'I've noticed these sex events happening in the last few months at a place that's supposed to be a restaurant and venue,' said one resident called Michelle. 'I was planning my wedding there and was appalled by the setup for those events. When I discovered what was going on, I was disgusted by how they were using the same rooms as 'playrooms' where families are supposed to eat. The hygiene and safety concerns are just unacceptable. They're destroying a sacred, Grade II listed building, and it's just not right. The owners need to be held accountable for their actions. It's time for us to stand up and protect our heritage and ensure that these spaces are used appropriately, especially when they should be serving families and the community.'
But other locals were more sanguine. 'I've been to some kids' parties at Belair House and also for brunch in the restaurant. It is a lovely venue but it's looking shabby and needs some serious renovation,' wrote Nicola, a resident of 10 years' standing. 'I am surprised that it's being used for high-end swinging parties, and I do think it would be better used as a community space which everyone can enjoy. But I don't blame the owners for needing to fund the upkeep of a building like that.'
Dating back to 1785, Belair House is described on its website as a 'timeless function space that works perfectly for any occasion'. It has been used as a film set and for weddings and parties. To hire the venue for the evening on a weekend costs £7,000. Belair House didn't respond to our request for a comment.
Sage Waterhouse has worked for Heaven Circle since September 2024, and says the party it held at Belair House was 'her favourite so far'. The invitation on the company's Instagram promised '500 candles, 500 roses, 1 stunning mansion from the 1700s, Two DJs, THE BIG BED, 3 playrooms, 5 performers, 1 shibari artist, 1 Domme, 2,000 condoms and 60 toys.'
'It was a wonderful venue,' she says. 'Normally our parties are held in more open-plan spaces, but this was like a townhouse, so it felt a lot more intimate and each room had a very different energy. We had naked fire shows, DJs and wax play. It was my first time modelling shibaru [the Japanese art of knot tying] and so that was very special for me.'
Waterhouse says that finding venues to agree to let them host their parties is 'very difficult'. 'There are certain presumptions about the swinger lifestyle that are very misunderstood and negative, and so often when we approach a venue we'll just get a flat no,' she says. 'But the staff at Belair House were lovely and the owners of the property have nothing against us.'
Heaven Circle brings all its own equipment to a venue and takes it away when a party is over. Waterhouse says that for this event – named 'Knights of St Francis' – it brought in eight single mattresses and erotic artwork.
'I understand there was a slight issue with the public and concerns about it being near schools or the venue being used for kids' parties,' she says, 'but I think it's such a shame that we face this kind of judgment.'
Heaven Circle has been running since 2014, and prides itself on its exclusivity. Waterhouse explains that partygoers must apply to become a member. 'We have 12 members of staff who we call 'the masons', who verify and approve every [application] that gets sent in,' she says. 'Prices for tickets vary depending on the event and whether you're a guy, a girl or a couple, but they're typically around £80. The range of people we get is extraordinary.'
Waterhouse says that the parties are funded by ticket sales and donations from wealthy individuals.
'Swinging and sex parties have definitely evolved in recent years and become more mainstream, appealing to a different kind of clientele as a result,' says Chris Haywood, a reader in critical masculinity studies at the University of Newcastle. 'The type of person who would go to a party in a mansion tends to be very different from the type who would be comfortable seeking out a traditional sex club. We're seeing more millennial and Gen Z couples, more middle-class women.'
Haywood has been researching the UK swinging scene since 2018 and says that the average age for a swinger is 45, and 70 per cent of female swingers identify as straight but are 'bi-curious'.
'For many people, sex parties have shaken off their seedy image, and we're seeing black-tie balls in stately-home-type venues becoming more popular. Social media and the ability to hear about parties online has also opened up the scene in a new way.'
Heaven Circle claims to have 114,000 members and Waterhouse says it will 'most likely' hold another party at Belair House. 'We've also thrown a party in a castle in Scotland and we're looking at venues in Surrey and Hertfordshire, too,' she says. 'My best party was a 'sorority party', just for women, where I arranged a nude ballerina and a human fruit table.'
Meanwhile, Belair House is back to hosting more traditional events, including a Tesla test-drive event, a 40th birthday and lavish white weddings. Although, in light of the Heaven Circle bash, even the most wholesome occasions take on a new meaning. Anyone fancy tickets to the 'Sunday jazz and roast'?

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LA anti-ICE looters shatter Apple store and make off with iPhones, Adidas in another night of chaos

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Remembering Jordan Breen: A mind MMA couldn't replace, and a man it couldn't save
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time3 hours ago

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Remembering Jordan Breen: A mind MMA couldn't replace, and a man it couldn't save

About a week before he got the news about his old friend, T.J. De Santis got a text asking him a question he'd asked himself many times over the past few years: How was Jordan Breen doing these days? 'All I could say was, 'I don't know and it breaks my heart,'' De Santis said. Advertisement Mike Bohn hadn't heard from Breen in close to a year. He'd tried many different ways to contact him. He'd even asked police in Breen's hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to check in on him. 'I just wanted to get some answers,' Bohn said. 'I'm checking the obituaries and things like that. Kind of dark thoughts, but just the reality of what was needed.' The police found him and made contact, they reported, but couldn't offer more than that. Breen did not want to be found, they said. Bohn heard from him once more after that, an email several months later 'kind of poking fun at me for calling the cops on him and asking if I could help him out financially.' 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We did a lot of stuff toward the end where, half the time it would be Jordan Breen and the other half he either just wouldn't show up or he would show up in a compromised state. I guess that's the struggle with addiction, you know what I mean? Just can't get out of your own way sometimes.' Bohn probably did more to help him than any other media friend, from loaning him money to letting Breen sleep on his couch. But even that friendship became strained by some of Breen's personal struggles. He'd invite Bohn to hang out at a bar where Breen's girlfriend at the time worked, but between their frequent arguments and Breen's reliance on the alcohol she kept serving him, the relationship seemed increasingly toxic and actively harmful. Advertisement 'There'd be times where I could see he was hurting and I'd invite him to hang out and he'd show up at my house and I could tell he hadn't slept in days and was coming off the back of whatever he was doing,' Bohn said. 'He would come and we'd play some WWE 2K or UFC, and then he would pass out on the coach for 15 hours and I could tell that was one place he maybe had some peace and could actually get some rest. But what do you do beyond that? Do you invite the guy to live with you? Do you do this? There's a lot of things you could try to do, but it just seemed like he was kind of his own worst enemy in that regard.' Savage still wonders to what extent Breen's many gifts were also part of his undoing. The frenetic intensity of the way he thought and spoke and wrote seemed like an expression of the same things that made him especially susceptible to addition. 'He was absolutely brilliant,' Savage said. 'Do you get that without the recklessness that comes along with it? I don't know.' De Santis expressed his sorrow that so many of MMA's current fans never had a chance to get to know Breen, or even learn the extent to which he helped shape coverage of the sport. Advertisement Sherdog's 'Fight Finder' tool was an instrumental building block of MMA record-keeping, and Breen was a vital force behind its exhaustive maintenance and structure, De Santis said. The requirements of such an extensive database of fights and fighters were well-suited to Breen's obsessive mind. Those who can rely on accurate and easily accessible fighter records now probably have no idea the debt they owe to people like Breen, he said. 'He was meticulous about things that people would never even know,' De Santis said. 'It's so weird because today I don't even know what a hardcore fan is. A hardcore might say, 'I've been watching since 2011. I've been watching since 2020. I've been watching since 1997.' Jordan, that's the thing, I can't even pinpoint when his fandom started. I really can't. He just seemed to show up knowing everything about everything.' As longtime MMA journalist Luke Thomas put it on his Substack: 'To the best of my knowledge, the degree to which Breen was respected, admired and viewed as instrumental in the development of MMA fandom for an entire generation of fans is not something Breen himself was aware.' Those who knew him and learned from him, however, have no doubt. They lost not only a friend, but also a walking piece of this sport's memory. 'He wanted to help media members like myself before I had any traction,' Bohn said. 'I'm sure a lot of people, you see them kind of responding, saying the same thing. The way he cared not only about the sport itself, but helping boost all the people who wanted to be involved in it to make it all grow upwards — I think that's something that we should all kind of take in, and say it's a collective effort in that regard. Tearing each other down isn't as helpful toward that goal as building each other up. And I think he really did his best to do that.'

Today in History: June 21, US Constitution becomes law
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San Francisco Chronicle​

timea day ago

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Today in History: June 21, US Constitution becomes law

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