Custard fetishes, nappy changing and sex every half hour… working girls from Sheffield’s famous family-run brothel reveal all
Mum-and-daughter owners and their staffers are back after original Channel 4 doc was a hit in 2015
“NOTHING that men do surprises me any more,” says Jenni, with a sigh.
And she has seen men doing quite a lot.
Along with her mum Kath, 53, the 28-year-old runs City Sauna, one of Sheffield’s busiest massage parlours — which, according to its punters, is also its most famous brothel.
Tonight the duo and their working girls are back in Channel 4’s A Very British Brothel, after the original documentary stunned viewers in 2015.
Ellie, 22, is new to the game, but explains she has already experienced some very unusual fetishes working for the parlour, which specialises in larger-sized ladies.
She says: “I have one guy who likes me just to sit and have a cigarette. I sit there in very sexy underwear. Another request was could I eat three pizzas, then they measure my stomach and see if I’ve got any bigger.”
You get a lot of giant babies who want mothering. They have full-length babygrows on. You have to change their nappy
Ellie, one of 14 girls at City Sauna, quit a promising career in advertising to work for Kath and Jenni. The girls do shifts, servicing up to 15 men a day each.
She explains: “I’ve always enjoyed sex, I wouldn’t say I was especially good at it but I’ve got a lot better.”
So much so that she’s decided to blow her own cover by appearing on camera.
Until now the bubbly redhead has not told anyone she is a sex worker but adds defiantly: “I’m not going to feel guilty about it.”
Ellie’s colleague Jo, 31, has been an escort since she was in her early 20s and reveals she has sex with up to 15 men a day in City Sauna’s massage rooms.
On the parlour's website she is described as a size 16 with a natural 38G bust.
Jo too has had some unusual requests. She says: “You get a lot of giant babies who want mothering. They have full-length babygrows on.
“You have to change their nappy. I ran out the room the first time I did it. I absolutely howled.”
Another of Jo’s regular clients, 63-year-old Owen, likes an hour in the VIP suite, where they play with custard in a Jacuzzi.
On the show he is seen arriving on crutches, clutching three tins of the teatime favourite, each marked with 69p on the label.
Flame-haired Lacey, 40, has also had her fair share of surprises from punters.
She reveals: “Some guys come in and you think, ‘Gosh he’s fit!’ and then, when you get him upstairs, he’s got his mother’s knickers and tights on under his jeans and you think, ‘All right then’.”
Surprisingly, Monday is the busiest week day and at City Sauna the morning shift always starts with a breakfast delivery from a local cafe.
They always say a big girl has got a big personality. I think that’s true and men like something to grab hold of
Tucking into a massive plate of food, Jo reveals: “I have chicken curry and chips for breakfast, it’s the breakfast of champions. It keeps your energy up.”
And it also helps maintain City’s unique selling point — the larger size of its girls. Owner Kath reckons men prefer them.
She says: “They always say a big girl has got a big personality. I think that’s true and they like something to grab hold of. Men visit for different reasons, some are lonely, some are not happy at home but don’t want to leave their wives.”
Meanwhile, the girls are working for just one reason — money, mostly to look after their children.
Kath explains: “They need to pay the mortgage, all the kids need school uniforms, they need all the latest trainers.”
On the show, Jenni is looking for more women to join her rota.
And it is not all about looks. The boss reveals: “I don’t think you can tell by looking at a girl that they’re going to be popular.
“We’ve had some absolutely stunning ladies in the past who weren’t busy then you’ve got ones who aren’t as pretty who absolutely smash it.”
Kath adds: “They’re not like Julia Roberts and they’re not street girls, they’re in the middle.”
The arrangement is straightforward. The girls get to use Kath and Jenni’s massage rooms and suites but they have to provide their own paraphernalia.
Says Jenni: “You have to bring your own condoms, lube and baby wipes.”
Tonight’s documentary shows Lilly, 30, being interviewed for a job at the parlour then starting work as an escort because she wants to fund a nursing degree. Her mum supports her.
Lilly says: “I wasn’t nervous telling my mum at all. My aim is to go to university to do nursing.
“I don’t care what people think. As far as I’m concerned I’m an independent business woman financing my own life, my own car and my own nursing degree.”
The girls all agree it is a lot safer working in City Sauna than out on the streets.
There are more than 70,000 working girls in the UK, with 25 per cent estimated to work on the street, while the majority operate out of unofficial brothels and massage parlours.
Jo reveals: “I’ve done streets and beats and now I just do parlours. It’s a lot safer working in a parlour.
“If anything happens here I know that Jenni and Kath are ten seconds running up those stairs. I’ve worked in shops and I’ve worked in bars, but it’s a better wage here.
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“They’re not all tall, dark and handsome that come through these doors, but you just have to put a smile on your face and get on with it.”
Men of all ages come to the brothel — some even in their tenth decade.
Jenni says: “I thought once you went to 40 to 50 that was it, but at 90 they are still coming in.”
One pensioner visitor is 73-year-old William, who travels 23 miles by bus from Doncaster to visit City Sauna — or, more specifically, to visit Jo.
He tells the cameras: “I like big boobs, nice legs, nice figure . . . nice personality, I suppose that’s important.
I don’t care what people think. I’m an independent business woman financing my life, my car and my nursing degree
“Over the years I’ve probably visited about ten massage parlours or saunas in Sheffield.”
And despite the building’s damp problem and the smell from the drains, which the girls moan about, William can’t sing City’s praises enough. He declares: “City Sauna is probably one of the nicest.
“They make you feel welcome. Jo is just a lovely personality, a big girl so to speak. I feel relaxed with her, we just get on with each other.
“I tend to go for the girlfriend experience, because it is like having a relationship. You’re getting the best part of the physical aspect but you’re not getting the bothering or the arguments, it’s a natural need.
“It’s out in the open, a business transaction. I’ve never had a proper relationship.”
With such satisfied customers it is perhaps no surprise that Kath is eager to expand her pleasure empire.
She reveals she has saved £6,000 to invest in new premises. But there’s a snag. Such is her “fame” no estate agents want to show her any properties they have coming up.
So instead she hopes to invest in a motor home as a mobile brothel and call it City On Tour.
She says on the show: “Every time I’ve seen a motor home on the motorway I’ve thought, ‘Um, I bet that would make a nice brothel’.
“I want to build up City because I think every parent’s dream is to leave something for her children.”
— A Very British Brothel airs tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm.