Art of spanking at the sex academy

Step off the streets of Soho, down a flight of stairs where the warm, glowing walls whisper sweet nothings to you and enter Amora, London's first permanent sex exhibition. Pay your £12 (£15 in the evening) and learn about the mechanics of the perfect kiss, the biology of an orgasm, and how hard to spank so it hurts.

But despite its location in the basement of the tourist trap the Trocadero, its connections with Madame Tussauds, and the stag nights which will inevitably frequent it, Amora is billing itself as an "academy for sex and relationships," with a mission to educate the public in the ways of love.

Sarah Brewer, director of exhibits, said: "There's a need for sex education which isn't boring and information which isn't sleazy. We want to improve attitudes. There was a play and film, No Sex Please, We're British. I think that's changed to sex please, we're British." But one Relate counsellor with connections to the project says: "The question is how much is educational and how much is titillation, how much is going to be for the furthering of human interest and how much is for commercial gain."



Johan Rizki, Amora's French founder, brought in an advisory board of counsellors, GPs and sex experts to oversee the exhibits and has courted sexual health charities during its three-year development, leading to a falling-out when they claimed endorsement by leading charities, including the Terrence Higgins Trust, which turned out to be unfounded. The Guardian reported the row a year ago and now has been invited in for a tour ahead of the public opening tomorrow.

The "academy" title is aimed at avoiding sleazy comparisons with the sex museums of New York and Amsterdam. Its interactive video exhibits are explicit and it has a resident sex therapist. It aims to be entertaining and educational, though it's hard to tell which first.

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