Fury over porn film shows in West End

A West End lap-dancing club has been cleared by the city council to screen porn films during the Festival.

The owner of Fantasy Palace hopes to establish the cinema as a permanent fixture on Shandwick Place. But West End community leaders have warned the move is threatening to create a Scottish version of Soho in one of the Capital’s most prestigious neighbourhoods.

Fantasy Palace has converted one of its three bars into a 100-capacity cinema for at least the duration of the Festival. It will show films carrying the infamous R-18 certificate, which are sold in the city’s sex shops.

Owner Gino Di Ponio, 41, said: "We’ll see how it goes and think about continuing it after the Festival finishes. I just don’t know how popular it will be. It’s really something new."

Mr Di Ponio has opened the cinema in partnership with entrepreneur Vincent Delicato, who runs the city’s Leather and Lace sex shops and the Festival Erotique in the Corn Exchange.

Customers will be able to see films, with titles such as Flesh Hunter 6 and Rocco Meats Suzie, for 10, which includes entry to the Fantasy Palace’s lap-dancing lounge.

Mr Di Ponio defended the cinema against protesters who said it was lowering the tone of the West End.

"It just means customers can see the new releases early on the big screen," he said. "Vince sells this kind of film in his shop, so we just got together and thought: ‘Why not give it a go?’

"The shops in Edinburgh have quite a big clientele for this kind of thing. It also fits in with the other entertainment we have here. We have food and drink and lap dancing - now we have erotic films too."

But angry protesters said the cinema had been allowed to open in the wrong place.

Krystyna Robinson, secretary of the West End Community Council, said the new venture was turning the West End into the Capital’s equivalent of Soho.

She said: "There’s a general question in our minds as to what kind of premises are appropriate in Shandwick Place, which is a neighbourhood for people, with shops and bus stops.

"We don’t really see it as a Soho kind of area. To actually advertise something here as a porn cinema is not very good at all.

"We feel it’s becoming a scene where this kind of public entertainment is becoming more and more prevalent. A porn cinema seems to me the extreme end of the scale. It doesn’t sound very neighbourly to me."

The residents’ protests were echoed by city councillor Tom Ponton, who said: "All these things have their place, but preferably in Amsterdam, not in Edinburgh."

The city council said Mr Di Ponio had so far been granted a licence only until the end of the Festival.

A council spokeswoman said: "If he wants to continue to operate after that time, he will have to reapply."

Conditions have been imposed on the cinema, which include running the venue as a private members’ club, using text-only adverts and having a separate entrance to other bars on the premises.

The city council said it would be enforcing those conditions.

The cinema is advertising screenings from "12.30pm until late". Mr Di Ponio added that no customers visited the cinema on its opening afternoon, but he thought that some would visit at night.

"We probably won’t get many people in the afternoon. It’s more of an evening thing," he said. "Also, we only started advertising at the weekend, but we have had quite a few calls from people asking when we’re open."

The protests over the opening of the pornographic cinema come just months after a storm over the Edinburgh Filmhouse’s plans, announced in April, to screen an R-18 film.

The Good Old Naughty Days was a collection of some of the world’s first hardcore erotic movies. The Filmhouse withdrew its plans after protests from church leaders.