Amora

Recently, in passing, a friend of mine mentioned that he’d taken a date to Amora - The Academy of Sex and Relationships. I hadn’t heard of this before (turns out it only opened last month) but it sounded interesting, so I thought I’d give it a look.

(Apologies - I couldn’t really think of a decent picture to include. As in, not indecent!)

Amora (no, not Amoura, like you might expect) is located in The Trocadero, near Piccadilly Circus. Not the most promising start - The Troc is a weird shopping mall/amusement arcade, often populated by scruffy young children. I’m pretty sure the Amora site is the one that used to be occupied by Alien War.

The aliens are now gone. Read on to find out what’s there instead.

No aliens, but still just as strange. Amora is a kind of sex educational/entertainment cross between a museum and an art gallery. On entry you get given a map and an electronic audio guide. I didn’t really use either of these. The venue only has a single route round and there’s plenty to read in the displays without the audio guide to add to the confusion.

The focus is mainly educational, pitched at the level you get in the kinds of relationship “how to” books that you can buy in any book shop. A lot of the text was written by mainstream sex advice author Tracey Cox. Although most areas of sex and relationships seem to be covered, it is all pretty vanilla and inoffensive. Nothing too controversial and it is all tastefully and attractively done.

There are some fun interactive displays, including the test your strength Spankometer, which looked like it had been spanked just a little bit too hard by someone, and touch screen TVs everywhere with all sorts of facts, figures and information. There were also very clear anatomical diagrams and cut away models to illustrate what goes where.

As with practically every other attraction in London these days, the event finishes rather predictably in the shop where one can purchase a whole range of toys, books and sexual accessories.

A curious experience, though as a business I’m not so sure how long it will last. I couldn’t really tell who it was aimed at. It was worth the price of admission, though, just for finding out the most chuckle-worthy fact that sperm can be ejaculated at up to 28 miles per hour. Look out!