The last time I went to The London Fetish Fair it was being held in a pub in Kings Cross. It was OK, but it always felt rather cramped and dark.

To its credit then, the new venue (well new to me at least), offers a lot more scope. Not only is there room in the bar area for about a dozen stalls, the organisers also have access to a large area outside. Perhaps disappointingly, there weren't that many stalls in the outer area, certainly less than I was anticipating from my last visit.

We arrived early, about 11.30am, to find that there is now a charge of £4 for the privilege of bringing our trade to the fair. Now, I totally accept that there is an administrative need to charge for access, so that the organisers can cover their costs. However it is not acceptable that they charge the punters £4, over and above the charges undoubtedly paid by the stall-holders to be there in the first place. When I first visited the fair, admittedly many years ago now, it was a pound. That, to me, seems reasonable. Four pounds isn't.

So what did you get for your entry fee? Well lots of good stuff actually. For the perv on a tight budget there was a good line of leather bondage implements from Affordable Leather. It has to be said that AF produce stuff that might be a tad rough around the edges but is no less effective than much pricier pieces from other outlets. My only concern would be using their posture collars without rounded off edges as these cannot be applied for long periods of time without them chaffing the skin and leaving obvious marks. Not ideal for those heading to work of a Monday morning. I recommend a visit to their web site at http://freespace.virgin.net/graham.marsden1/main.htm .

A nice line in 'fuck me' shoes was on show starting at a quite reasonable £35 a pop. You will know the kind... clear plastic heels up to a precarious 6 inches and a variety of thicknesses of sole. A female friend assures me these shoes not only look great, but are actually much easier to walk in than you would imagine. To prove her point she wore some recently and ran around the shop! Given that the shops in Soho try to charge anything up to £85 for essentially the same designs, this stall is a good choice indeed and will save the cost-conscious a few bob.

For those who like exotic jewellery there was a stall with some wonderful pieces for wrapping around the ear and over the face. You could imagine this would look pretty incredible in a hot club with the UV lights shining on them.

There were a couple of stalls doing a nice line in rubber dresses, tops, skirts, et al, though price-wise much of it didn't seem to be any cheaper than you might pay in the city fetish shops. Then there was a quite under-whelming stall of PVC designs. OK, so PVC is cheaper than rubber or leather but, to my mind, it looks cheap and nasty. My apologies to those who have a particular thing for it.

One stall seemed to comprise of nothing but dodgy photocopies of old spanking mags and audio tapes of porn novels read by someone who might once have been famous. We never actually heard any of these tapes so can't comment on how good they were. Yet in this digital age, there was something wonderfully retro about this stall. It was reminiscent of going to Ye Olde Curio Shoppe and rummaging around for some gem of an antique... or pervy past-time in this case.

Up the stairs were an outfit calling themselves Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar or Aychee.com or both... it wasn't too clear. Apparently they run their own fetish market in the Midlands on the third Sunday of every month. But what caught the eye was some very good-value and simple suspension points selling for a fiver each. Essentially you slip them over the top of a convenient door, close it and, et voila!, you have yourself ready made suspension points for all sorts of dastardly deeds. You can see what I mean by going to http://www.aychee.com/page4.html

This gets the FetishScot Gold award for the best-value item on sale at the Fair. Oh, and a parting shot, before we leave Aychee, were some rather excellent cuffs using velcro. I've always been circumspect about how good these things are, but, after having product tested them on two subs who were with me, I'm assured they are very secure. You could get a pair of these for £10 at the Fair. For those who like to see pictures, there are some excellent shots of a girl called Kelly demonstrating them at http://www.aychee.com/gallery1/index.html .

Next to Aychee was a stall selling a sling. I'm a big fan of these things, having bought one recently myself. At £145 (I think - apologies if I got this wrong), the one on display had the added advantage of heavy duty springs from which you hang the various suspension elements. Basic advice, if buying a sling, make sure that there is good lumber support and that the straps for the thighs are wide. If they are not then it can actually be dangerous as extended play can cut off the circulation in the legs and might even cause thrombosis.

And so to one of the stayers of the London Fetish Fair - Vic Wilder Originals. Vic, short for Victoria, turns out to be a diminutive diva who makes superb original leather designs and was at the very first Fair I visited some seven years ago. At that time she made me a pair of 501 cut leather jeans for the princely sum of £125. Seven years on, you can have her make you a made-to-measure pair for £150. Now if that isn't good value I don't know what is!

Obviously I wasn't the only one impressed with her work as one of our crew just couldn't resist purchasing a beautiful leather open-top bustier, which showed of her boobs to great effect. I don't think she realised, however, that the whole idea is NOT to wear a bra with it Vic has now joined the digerati with her own impressive little web offering at http://www.theultimateleather.co.uk You can see examples of the open bustier and other superb leather designs on site.

For those into their uniforms there was a decent range on show with a red guardsman's uniform on offer for £80 but no sign of the tall black furry hat to go with it (the name of which I forget). This seems pretty good value and you can get your sub to shine the brass buttons until they gleam. Yet, I personally don't like seeing nazi memorabilia for sale and there were one or two bits on offer at the same stall.

Outside the stalls were a little less interesting, with one choice exception. Bondage Systems were up from their south coast headquarters displaying a wonderfully naughty device... the Revolving Web of Desire. Essentially this is a steel cross with supprting padded harnesses, which, once you have your sub in situ, can be rotated 360 degrees. It's very solid and beautifully made. In fact it is an art object in its own right and would look great in any self-respecting dom's dungeon (or living room). I know, from personal experience, that the quality of their work is second-to-none, having bought one of their visually stunning spider's cages just a few months ago. You can see the full range at their web site http://www.bondage-systems.co.uk .

Lastly the FetishScot Innovation Award goes to the guy who developed an interchangeable handle which can accommodate all sorts of additions. You buy the handle and can then add different fittings... flogger, whip, in fact anything you want and he can make. Better still, as the attachment rotates within the handle, you can get up a really smooth action without having to flick the wrist. Apparently this is what inspired the original design as the developer made it for his Mistress who suffered from arthritis? what an inspired and helpful Sub he is.

And atmosphere? Yep, plenty of it. Apart from the fact that you cannot buy food until midday, (we were hoping to get a breakfast fry-up) the bar-food is good value with good helpings. After we'd wandered around all the stalls, eaten, chatted with the various pervs floating around the, at times very crowded bar, it was already past 5pm and they were calling last orders. Time obviously flies when you are having fun. We'd sat at the bar for some five hours but it seemed like only a few!

Oh and a final plug for Mistress O's Comedy Game Show. She was handing out her card at the bar, promoting Comic Discipline. As the card says "A Tournament of Humour and Humiliation". Now, having not seen this for myself I won't tell you it's great, but there isn't anything quite like this going on at the moment so it's got to be worth a look in. It's on each Wednesday at 9pm at the Camden Head, Camden Walk, Islington. Look out for a review coming very soon.

You can check out the London Fetish Fair's web site at www.londonfetishfair.co.uk

Until next time... FS