It may be too early to start putting a blue plaque outside this Cardiff sex shop but it has certainly earnt a place in the annals of Welsh pop culture.
This is the shop in Canton, Cardiff which helped to inspire the title of the Super Furry Animals’ 2005 album Love Kraft. Here’s what Gruff Rhys said about it in a 2005 interview:
Why did you call the album Love Kraft?
Because of its introspective nature; the songs are very personal and it’s evocative of many things. The love we have for our craft. And we love Love. And we love Kraftwerk. And we love HP Lovecraft. And there’s also a shop in Cardiff which is called Lovecraft – but that’s spelt with a ‘c’.
What do they sell over there – garments?
Yeah…that kind of stuff. It’s opposite our manager’s office. So we see the shop every day and it must have stuck in the head. But we changed it to a ‘k’.
But even without that connection, it’s still an iconic place. It was opened in 1997 but looks like something from the mid 70s. The weird colour scheme seems to be a tribute to West Ham, the team supported by its owner Simon Sternschuss.
He regularly has to deal with complaints from locals about his ‘sexy’ window display, featuring four mannequins draped in various bits of sex tat. He could put four car batteries in the window and it would be more erotic.