Inside one of Wales' last surviving adult sex shops after decades serving the 'curious'

Wales' last-surviving sex shops are still serving members of the public decades after they opened their doors.

Few can say they are doing so as the last bastions of are reduced, but like Lovecraft, manned by owner Martin Millar, are still open. longstanding sex shop opened in 1997 at the corner of Wyndham Crescent, with inquisitive first customers poking their heads in.

Controversy soon followed the opening of the store with local paper South Wales Echo reporting an "outcry" over the store. Mr Millar alleges that they later refused payment for advertisements in their paper. He said: "I actually had contacted the Echo saying I’d pay them for advertising and the person on the phone said: ‘No, we wouldn’t advertise with shops like that.’ And he put the phone down on me."

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But the difficulties with opening the sex shop did not stop there as some harsh letters to Millar and his business decried what he was doing. Speaking to , Mr Millar said: "Then the day we opened I saw this headline and couldn’t believe it. It turned out it was great marketing for us and we didn’t even have to pay. We were so busy after that for a good while.

"We did get protests to start with – religious groups outside for a day or two and letters through the door. Some of them were pretty harsh, like telling us we must drink the blood of Satan. But it all died down." The store still stocks everything from magazines to DVDs to hundreds of sex toys.

Mr Millar said: "The magazines are very retro. Very popular among older generations. We have to go to special auctions to get them because you just can’t get them easily anymore. It’s a nostalgia thing, isn’t it? I remember as a kid finding magazines and if you ask people over 40 they’d probably be the same. The toys have changed a lot of minds. We’ve still got the butt plugs and the bondage stuff but so much has changed. Some of it even shocks me."

Despite the change in the high street and the advances made by online retail fronts, Mr Millar says the digital age has done little to impact the store's sales. "Most of our customers still come into the shop," he revealed. "They tend to want to check out what they’re buying or might be disappointed with what they bought online elsewhere. Sometimes, believe it or not, they’re actually coming in for advice."

Fellow sex store owner Faith Attwell, who has owned Passion since 1999, tells a similar story. She said: "I have sex therapists and doctors who refer people here. Someone could have a sexual dysfunction and a toy will help. Or a woman who is struggling for a baby might be told to come here with her partner to make things more fun. Many disabled people are referred here too. So it’s not all that people think. I don't think it's seedy. It’s life and it’s important."