Paul Raymond (15 November 1925 – 2 March 2008), born Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, was an English strip-club owner, publisher of pornography, and property developer who was dubbed the "King of Soho".

[1] Raymond was born in Liverpool to Frank Joseph (who later changed his surname to Quinn), and Maud McKeown, one of three sons of an Irish Roman Catholic family.

[4] The outbreak of World War II prompted relocation to Glossop, Derbyshire, where he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers.

Leaving school at 15, he was a Manchester Ship Canal office boy before taking up the drums with dance bands.

[1] He was conscripted as a Bevin Boy down a coal mine, but gave up after a day and was found by police; he then did his National Service in the Royal Air Force,[4] while working as a switchboard operator and bandsman.

[11] In 1961, his club was called "filthy, disgusting and beastly" by the chairman of the London Sessions[a] when Raymond was fined £5,000[12] following a magistrate's decision that permitting members to ring the Ding Dong Girl's bells constituted running a disorderly house.

[22] Often dubbed by the press 'King of Soho',[23] he was the target of two extortion attempts,[24] which were disclosed in the October 2010 release of Metropolitan Police papers.

[27] Raymond also had two sons; Derry McCarthy (born Darryl) being from a previous relationship with Noreen O'Horan (who had worked with Raymond as an assistant on his stage act), prior to his marriage (his proposal of marriage was rejected),[16] and Howard, his son by his wife Jean Bradley.

[30] A recluse in his last years and living in a penthouse near the Ritz Hotel,[10] he died of prostate cancer and respiratory failure in 2008, aged 82.

[15] His granddaughters Fawn and India James inherited his estate[3] once estimated at £600 million in The Sunday Times Rich List in 2004.

The working title was The King of Soho, but this was changed as Howard Raymond had already trademarked it for another (as yet unmade) drama about his father's life; he stated that he had "never wanted or sought" to prevent Winterbottom's film being made.