'She made lots of people very happy': With wreathes that read 'SEX' and pallbearers dressed as policemen, brothel madam Cynthia Payne is laid to rest in suitably outrageous fashion

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Pallbearers in police uniform and actors dressed as French maids today lined the streets of south London to pay their respects to Britain's best-known madam Cynthia Payne as she was laid to rest near her home in Mitcham.  

Dozens of mourners dressed in brightly-coloured clothing turned out at the South London cemetery to mark the 'rich and colourful life' of the 82-year-old, who died last month.

Payne, nicknamed Madame Cyn and described as an 'archetypal English eccentric', hit the headlines in 1978 when police raided a sex party at her home to find elderly men using luncheon vouchers to pay for lewd entertainment.

And in a nod to her infamous past today, pallbearers dressed in police uniform carried her coffin into the crematorium - a specific request she made to friends and family prior to her death. 

Actors dressed as policeman and maids stand outside the Mitcham Mint pub this afternoon as Cynthia Payne was laid to rest

A jazz band accompanied the cortege, which included a horse drawn carriage, as friends and family threw a 'celebratory' funeral

Three women were at the funeral in French maids' costumes (pictured), in a nod to Ms Payne's mischievous tongue-in-cheek personality 

Actors dressed as policemen carried her coffin into the funeral service, which took place at the South London Cemetery in Mitcham

The coffin of Cynthia Payne is pictured being carried in to the funeral service as mourners dressed in french maid outfits grieve alongside

Floral tributes were left at Cynthia's graveside, including one which read 'sex'. She hit the headlines in 1978 when police raided a sex party at her home to find elderly men using luncheon vouchers to pay for lewd entertainment

As the cortege made its way to the cemetery, mourners dressed in police outfits lined the route, while a jazz band played Bring Me Sunshine by Morecambe and Wise. In a nod to her tongue-in-cheek personality, a scarlet floral wreath which spelled out the word 'sex' was placed on the back of the horse-drawn carriage.

Aside from the uniformed pallbearers, mourners were asked to dress in brightly-coloured clothing - a last request made by Payne before she died.

Her coffin was carried into the service by four men dressed as policemen - in accordance with her final wishes - because they were 'always her favourite kink'.

Speaking in 1982, she had said: 'I've always been attracted to policeman. I've been raided about five times and in three of those I've ended up with a boyfriend.' 

Mourners had also obeyed her final wishes by dressing in vibrant outfits. One man attended in a gold waistcoat and red leather shoes, while a host of turquoise, tartan and purple velvet blazers filled the room. Fittingly, the song I Am What I Am was played.

Monty Python star Terry Jones - who, in 1987, directed a film of her life Personal Services - then led tributes to 'wonderful English eccentric', telling the congregation: 'She was a lovely girl and a big presence. She lived life to the full.' 

David Leland, who wrote Personal Services, told how he attended one of Payne's parties and found a sign in the bathroom which read: 'No f****** in the bathroom. Last time the sink came off the wall.'

He recalled another occasion when he went to make a cup of tea in her kitchen and found a lawyer called Lionel on the floor wearing a French maid uniform and eating cat food.

Mr Leland said: 'Whatever it was you wanted, Cynthia was there to accommodate. She may have said 'You silly bugger', but she never passed judgment. That earned her an enormous amount of respect from people.

'People liked her and people loved her.' 

Another wreath read 'Cyn' after her nickname Madame Cyn. The famous madame was described as an 'archetypal English eccentric'

She stood trial in 1980 and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Holloway prison, reduced to six months and a fine on appeal, for running a brothel. Pictured: The order of service (left) and her son Glen (right) arrives at the service today 

In 1988, Ms Payne stood in the Kensington by-election for the Payne and Pleasure Party, winning 400 votes. Her portrait is pictured at the cemetery today

Another of the floral tributes read 'nan'. Ms Payne was known as an eccentric and stood for parliament twice to try and change the laws around sex

Phil Walder, of the British Humanist Association, who conducted the service, described Payne as the 'original Spice Girl', saying she was 'promoting girl power long before the band got together.'

He added: 'Anyone who knew anything about Cynthia's life knew she made lots of people very happy,' - a comment which prompted a ripple of laughter from the congregation. 

Recounting stories from her life, Mr Walder said Payne was introduced to Cherie Blair at an event at 10 Downing Street and met Shirley Bassey in Cannes. She also hung up on George Michael, whose father wanted to meet her, because she did not know who the singer was, Mr Walder said.

Payne's former agent Jenne Casarotto described Payne as part of the 'dying breed' of 'English eccentrics', adding: 'She was a force of nature.'

Her friend Helen Buckingham, 77, added that she had a 'magnetic personality'. 'It's her all over - the mix of fun and cheeky with the highbrow and exclusive,' she said. 'Cynthia was utterly charming, broad-minded and most of all, she was great fun.

'She seduced everyone - old, young, man, woman, it didn't matter, she was very cheeky and flirtatious. She was unshockable and very tolerant. She was also a mother figure to a lot of people. ' 

The funeral procession on the way to Ms Payne's grave. She was described during the service as the 'original Spice Girl' who was 'promoting girl power long before the band'

Payne's former agent Jenne Casarotto described her as part of the 'dying breed' of 'English eccentrics', adding: 'She was a force of nature'

Mourners dressed in policeman outfits followed the pallbearers as they carried Ms Payne's coffin to her burial spot in south London today

Ms Payne, also known as Madame Cyn and described as an 'archetypal English eccentric', died last month and was laid to rest today

Ms Payne's coffin is seen being unloaded from the horse drawn carriage and carried into the crematorium by pallbearers in police uniform

The coffin of Cynthia Payne sits at the South London Crematorium today as mourners gathered to pay their respects to the former Madam

Ms Payne's coffin was lowered into her grave today at South London Crematorium in Mitcham, London, following the humanist service

Another mourner, Piers Allardyce, 52, said: 'She thought everyone deserved love, and sex was just connected to that. She was very ahead of her time in attitudes and breaking taboos.

'She wasn't someone you'd forget easily - a wonderfully open woman.'  

A peer of the realm, barristers and vicars were alleged to be among her clientele - said to number around twenty a day - who she claimed considered her to be 'the best hostess in London'.

The former brothel keeper had stood trial in 1980 and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Holloway prison - reduced to six months and a fine on appeal - for running a brothel.

Her life was immortalised in two films: Wish You Were Here, which launched the career of actress Emily Lloyd, and Personal Services, starring Julie Walters.  

Known as an eccentric, Ms Payne stood for parliament twice to try and change the laws around sex.

In 1988 she stood in the Kensington by-election for the Payne and Pleasure Party, winning 400 votes. 

She tried a second time in the 1992 general election election in Streatham, this time for the Rainbow Dream Ticket. 

Writing in 2011 about Kensington, she said 'We had a wonderful election; it was very exciting' adding that she had met Screaming Lord Sutch on the campaign trail and become 'besotted' by him. 

Family friend Kevin Horkin said the service will reflect Payne's love for life.

He said: 'I know that she would have hoped to cheer everyone up and put a smile on their faces as they remember her more than colourful past and that she would have wanted people to enjoy themselves for a couple of hours after all the dreadful weather we have been having recently.

'Anybody who knew Cynthia is more than welcome to come along.' 

On her website Payne said: 'I hit the headlines in 1978 when the police raided my home along a pleasant tree-lined avenue in suburban Streatham, interrupting a sex party that was in full swing.

'For months afterwards, the media would write of queues of middle aged and elderly men waiting to exchange their 'luncheon vouchers' for food, drink, friendly chat, striptease shows, and a trip upstairs with the girl of their choice. Vicars, MPs and lawyers were amongst those who considered me to be the best hostess in London (sic).' 

She leaves two sons, Glenn and Darrell, and five grandchildren. 

A horsedrawn hearse carries the coffin of Cynthia Payne, followed by a procession, which took place at the South London Cemetery today

A horsedrawn hearse - covered with floral tributes spelling out the word 'sex' - carried the coffin of Ms Payne to her funeral in London 

Large floral tributes spelling out 'Cyn', 'Sex' and 'Nan' were placed around the gravesite at the south London crematorium before burial

Ms Payne's coffin is seen being lowered into her grave as mourners look on and mourn the woman who was an eccentric brothel madam

Sinful? Yes but golly she cheered Britain up: As Cynthia Payne, the suburban brothel keeper who traded girls for Luncheon Vouchers, is laid to rest, GEOFFREY LEVY pays tribute

By Geoffrey Levy for the Daily Mail

Even for hard-bitten vice officers who thought they'd seen everything, the extraordinary scene greeting detectives raiding an austere-looking Edwardian house in the middle of the day came as a shock.

Crowded in the hallway were 53 middle-aged and elderly men, with a queue snaking up the stairs to the bedrooms where 13 lithesome girls, some naked, were operating what was, in effect, a human conveyor belt system.

Each man was clutching a Luncheon Voucher to be handed over in exchange for their personal requirements. For some this would be ordinary sex, for others something a little more flamboyant, perhaps involving two girls. A few were in lingerie and waiting to be spanked. All with food and drink thrown in.

The men included several vicars, a peer of the realm, an Irish MP, company chiefs and several barristers.

Madam: Cynthia Payne traded girls for Luncheon Vouchers from an Edwardian house - her clients included MPs, vicars, a peer and lawyers

For some such a scene can only represent appalling depravity. For most, however, it's so absurdly comic that even now, 37 years later, it is still capable of raising the nation's spirits — especially the use of Luncheon Vouchers, which in those days were a perk given by companies to employees to pay for meals.

That police raid in Streatham, South London, in 1978 introduced us to the chirpy little chatterbox who was running the house of pleasure — Cynthia Payne, or Madam Cyn, as she enjoyed being known. She wasn't running a bawdy house, she endlessly explained over the years. She was simply having a party.

Madam Cyn died aged 82 on Sunday, still living in the same road, still beguiling us with her saucy manner, her little hands, as always, covered in rings.

No one would have expected, on the day police burst in, that the woman in charge would become a celebrity, even a folk hero, the subject of a biography and two films, in one of which she was played by Julie Walters.

S he even stood for Parliament — once in a Kensington by-election for the 'Payne and Pleasure' party demanding a change in the sex laws, and then again in her home territory of Streatham. She didn't really expect to be elected, and wasn't. But she believed in the cause of legalised prostitution.

And how she loved the limelight.

No other woman earning a living from the oldest profession has ever created so much fun, or fomented so much anger — even in high places — at laws which forbade, as she saw it, something which did more good than harm.

Businesswoman: The ex-Madam poses at the peak of her career

But had it not been for Judge David West-Russell, she might have slipped back into obscurity. When the raid came to trial in 1980 the judge, who noted this was her fifth conviction for keeping a brothel, sentenced her to 18 months — a punishment so severe it caused a public outcry. And so began a national debate.

A Commons motion deploring her imprisonment was signed by 30 MPs of all parties. They included Sam Silkin, a former Labour Attorney-General, as well as Tony Benn.

Their point was that she posed no threat to the community. If anyone should be jailed, they reasoned, it should be her customers, who weren't even named.

The prominent Conservative Anthony Beaumont-Dark said the prosecution had made fools of the police. 'People are wondering why squads of policemen are launching punitive raids on a bit of harmless fun rather than getting on with the real job of hammering rapists, burglars and muggers.'

Another Tory, ladies' man Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, declared Cynthia Payne should be mentioned in the Honours List for keeping the nation amused and that the police should concentrate on 'matters of national importance'.

On appeal the sentence was reduced to six months, and she served four in Holloway. By the time she emerged, Cynthia Payne was not just Madam Cyn, but had become the star of what was to be Britain's greatest, and longest-running real-life sex comedy. She was driven away in a Rolls by a supporter, said to be a former client, to a 'coming out' party.

But the law is the law, and the police never gave up, whatever public opinion was saying. Seven years later she was back in court on nine charges, as police described finding tangles of naked bodies from the hallway to the bathroom at her home, in Ambleside Avenue.

The police went to some lengths this second time — two (male) plain clothes officers infiltrated her party, with one of them dressed as a woman, then 30 officers burst in.

She was charged with controlling prostitutes at her home. But when the jury of eight men and four women trooped in after five hours of deliberation, the courtroom burst into spontaneous applause as they found her not guilty.

It was, declared an excited Madam Cyn, then 53, 'a victory for common sense, but I have to admit this has put me off having parties for a bit'.

Just for a bit, you understand. All she had been doing, she explained chirpily to the jury, was holding an 'end-of-film' party at her home — to celebrate the completion of Personal Services, the movie in which she was played by Julie Walters. Walters, it should be said, wasn't at the party.

As Cynthia left clutching a laughing policeman doll that she had held throughout the trial, half the jury lined up in what looked very much like a guard of honour. Jeffrey Bernard, a famously dissolute columnist in The Spectator, described her as 'the greatest Englishwoman since Boadicea'.

And so her notoriety continued, as even the late Earl of Longford — that resolute campaigner against pornography — joined in the support for the woman who campaigned for the legalisation of prostitution.

But then a new career was emerging. She made time for a three-week season at the Edinburgh Fringe playing to packed houses, a precursor to becoming a much in demand after-dinner speaker. One thing that particularly caught the public's imagination about Cynthia Payne's 'parties' was her age limit on clients — no one under 40 allowed in, with a discount of up to £5 for pensioners.

Behind this rule lay a poignant story. Born in Bognor Regis, Cynthia was 11 when her mother died of throat cancer, leaving her father, a hairdresser on Union Castle liners, a grieving and lonely man.

'I only invited older men to my parties because of him,' she said. 'When my Mum died, I used to see him walking about the house crying. He was in a terrible state.

'I thought if I stick to middle-aged and elderly people who have lost their wives or who had sick wives, or men who lived on their own, it would run as a sort of welfare state.'

Tried: Cynthia was charged with controlling prostitutes at her home, but when the jury trooped in after five hours of deliberation, the courtroom burst into spontaneous applause as they found her not guilty. Above: Cynthia leaving Holloway Prison with her pet dog Sandy

Ms Payne is pictured outside her home in November this year (right) and with actress Julie Walters (left), who portrayed a character based on her life experiences in the 1987 film Personal Services, directed by Monty Python's Terry Jones

Only Cynthia Payne could come up with such a comparison. She managed to say it with barely a grin. In later years her father actually became one of her clients as she arranged for him to spend time with 'a lovely Indian girl'.

It was all part of her 'personal services' policy — give the man whatever he wants. One client liked to polish high-heeled shoes while the owner was wearing them.

As for the part of her story that caused the biggest laugh — the Luncheon Vouchers — these were issued by her to the men in exchange for their money.

The vouchers were all old and out of date, but served as a receipt which was handed to the girls to prove the men had paid. She looked after her girls very well, though. At the end of each shift she made them egg on toast, with tea.

Cynthia had been a prostitute herself for a while, in order to pay the bills. She'd worked as a waitress and an assistant in that smart, old London department store Swan & Edgar before getting pregnant by an older man, who was married. Her son Dominic, was fostered.

Through another affair at 19 a second son, Glen, was born, and he was adopted. Then, finding herself behind with the rent, she went on the game. As she told biographer Paul Bailey for his book An English Madam: 'I realised I could do it (prostitution) and make money. It made me bloody determined I was never going to go crawling for money again.'

And she made enough to put Dominic through private school. After she had started the parties, she made one exception to the over-40s rule, taking the opportunity to let him, at 16, lose his virginity with a carefully selected girl.

Ms Payne is seen at a Women of the Year luncheon at the Savoy Hotel in London after being invited for her work as a sex law campaigner

Ms Payne was flanked by police officers as she attended a glitzy premiere event in London for the film based on her life 'Personal Services'

Ms Payne is pictured arriving at court for her trial in 1980, after which she was sentenced to 18 months in Holloway prison for running a brothel, a term that was later cut to six months and a fine on appeal

A ll the time, she insisted: 'My place wasn't a knocking shop, it was like a club. I was never kinky myself. I am very conservative, really, in most things.'

In those early days she did, however, whip and cane her companion and devoted friend, the wartime Squadron Leader Robert Mitchell 'Mitch' Smith, who lived with her until his death in 1981. 'I didn't like it but I found after I whipped him he was much nicer to me,' she recalled. 'I was very fond of him.'

With fame came her new life as celebrity after-dinner speaker, dishing out glossy business cards dominated by the two letters to which she largely owed her fame, 'LV'.

And as a speaker, she became quite a polished performer, usually beginning by acknowledging any elderly man in the audience with the words: 'Good to see you again.' It always brought the house down.

She never lost her irrepressibly saucy manner, saying: 'In my 30s I was doing it, in my 40s I was organising it, and by my 60s I'm just talking about it.'

In her final years she lived quietly, still in Ambleside Avenue. 'I haven't the love of a good man but I do feel loved by the country,' she reflected some time ago. 'It filled a void, really, and nobody was more surprised than me.'

Madam Cyn failed to get prostitution legalised, of course. But it was fun trying.