The Birth of The Fetish Scene

The Birth of The Fetish Scene
Or How a Glove Puppet Rat Started It All

The bastard child of the Marquis de Sade had a difficult labour – taking, appropriately, 169 years from his death to 1983, when the hand of a very famous TV glove puppet rat set the modern UK fetish club scene in motion.

Meet The Rat
In the neon-drenched London club scene of the early 1980s, amid the dying embers of punk and the rise of New Romantic excess, a most unlikely figure helped De Sade birth the modern fetish underground – a cheeky, glove-puppet rat named Roland Rat. Yes, that Roland Rat the wisecracking TV rodent who, voiced and operated by actor David Claridge, stormed breakfast television and saved a struggling TV-AM, ITV’s new breakfast telly show. (Younger readers: Roland Rat was an absolute superstar on British TV back then!)

Skin Two Club, Soho
But before Roland became a household name, Claridge had a very different vision for late-night London. In 1982, fresh from the Blitz Club and the New Romantic whirlwind, he and his creative partner ‘Bill’ (latex pioneer Daniel James) hatched a plan that would change the world. On Monday 31st January 1983, in a discreet basement, the original Skin Two Club opened its doors at Stallions, a gay venue in Falconberg Court, in London’s Soho – and the contemporary fetish scene was born.

David Claridge had already co-hosted legendary club nights. But it was a trip to a notorious New York S&M club in Manhattan that lit the spark. London needed something like this… stylish, inclusive and unapologetically fetish-forward, not the stuffy, secret raincoat-clad scene of the previous decades. The pair brainstormed names over lunch with friends, including music journalists Tony Mitchell and Bev Glick. Options included Second Skin, Skin Two, and the more obscure Under Three Layers (a nod to a cult latex film by AtomAge founder John Sutcliffe). Skin Two won out evoking the idea of latex or leather as a sleek “second skin.”

Some 80s & 90s Fetish Nostalgia

‘Bill’, a theatrical costumier, make-up artist and mask-maker, was the perfect collaborator. He had already begun experimenting with latex fashion, creating the club’s first rubber garments on the fly. The duo approached venues and found Stallions.Photographer Peter Ashworth shot the first promo images at Claridge’s flat, featuring ‘Bill’s’ girlfriend Lesley Beaumont in the very first rubber dress he’d ever made, and model Sue Scadding (a Debbie Harry lookalike) in a catsuit.

So on that cold January evening in 1983, a small crowd descended the stairs into Stallions. The dress code was strict: rubber, leather, uniform or drag, but street clothes were strictly banned. The atmosphere was revolutionary for its time. This wasn’t a seedy backroom or a secretive society meeting. It was a cool, creative space where pop stars rubbed shoulders with housewives, models, artists, and clubbers. Fetish was celebrated – a fashion movement was beginning. 

Claridge’s double life couldn’t last forever. As Roland Rat exploded in popularity on TV-AM, complete with his cheeky catchphrases and tabloid appeal, the British gutter press eventually got wind of his night-time activities. When the connection between the wholesome children’s TV puppet and Soho’s fetish basement made headlines, Claridge had to step away. The club continued under new management for a time, but the original iteration at Stallions eventually wound down. Claridge’s involvement became a quirky footnote in fetish lore, one that many dismissed as urban myth until the full story resurfaced in recent retrospectives.

Maîtresse Club
After David Claridge had to step away, the Monday night event in the Stallions basement continued without him. The club reopened under the new name Maîtresse in the same venue Stallions, on the same night (Mondays). It kept the same strict dress code and attracted a similar creative, mixed crowd. This name change happened fairly soon after the original launch (late 1983 or early 1984). Another notable connection was Jacquie O’Sullivan, the replacement member of Bananarama. She has proudly declared that she helped run the legendary fetish club Maîtresse.

Skin Two Magazine
The switch freed up the name ‘Skin Two’, which was then used by Tim Woodward and Grace Lau when they launched the now famous Skin Two Magazine in 1984 (initially as a small fanzine) to document and expand the scene. 

The First 3 Issues of Skin Two Magaine

And what began as a one-night-a-week experiment in a Soho basement grew into a global phenomenon: rubber balls, international fetish clubs, latex couture, thriving mail-order businesses, and an entire subculture that reshaped fashion, music, and sexual expression. The modern fetish scene owes its vibrant, inclusive roots to two ambitious ’80s clubbers… and one very famous glove-puppet rat. Who would have thought that a cheeky rodent with a gloved hand up its backside would help usher in an era of sexual freedom, creative expression, and second-skin glamour. David Claridge may have had to hang up his organiser hat when Roland took centre stage, but the club he co-founded with Daniel James proved far more enduring than any TV puppet. It showed the world that fetish wasn’t fringe or forbidden – it was fabulous, and it was here to stay.