FuckYeahMaps
December 2019
#Historic Sex Work In London
Click here to explore the whole map
As tends to happen from time to time I got bored and made a web map. This one goes under the category of invisibilised histories. I scoured the internet for references to historic sex work in London and this is what I came up with.
Much of this work has already been covered, with excellent maps created from teams such as those from Romantic London who have swept through the Harris Lists and re-created a map of sex work in the late 18th century. I reproduce this work here as a sub-layer of The Georgian period, and my thanks goes to the creators who saved me a lot of time.
Although I always use the phrase sex work by preference, sex work and prostitution are used here interchangeably. Historical writers were no strangers to the odd euphemism and the modern journalists and online writers discussing historical sex work have very varied viewpoints. A lot of the sources i came across discussed the sale via auction of Victorian pocket books of sex workers addresses. The journalists writing these articles tend to either enforce the image of the Les Miserables style human tragedy trope of the impovershed prostitute or go for an equally cringy and old fashioned "good grief those Victorian chaps were a naughty old bunch weren't they, those old ladies of the night, oh la la, not that I'd know anything about that sort of thing, not at all" whilst pulling a silly face that makes any well-informed reader want to slap them.
As with all historical research, the availability of information is variable and frustrating. I found most the most sources referring to sex work from the 18th century onwards, making it appear as if there was a proliferation of sex work in these periods. Rest assured sex workers are a fixture of any town in any period, but within the scope of this study (small and non-academic) the bias is a result of the availability of sources.
My work started as a desire to map the addresses of brothels and sex workers over the centuries and quickly evolved into a vision of the topography of sex work in London from the Medieval period to the 19th century. For this reason I have included historical red light districts and some notorious reform facilities. These latter institutions, being located in the poorer parts of East London are worthy of inclusion as they demonstrate the history of the changing views of sex work. From the medievalist view of a necessary evil that may only be practiced outside the city walls, to a social ill worthy of the attentions of Victorian philanthropists, amongst them Charles Dickens.
Throughout the Medieval to the early modern period London sex work was concentrated along Southwark, at the edge of the city. Tudor records show at least 22 brothels operating in a small area known as The Stews, where theatres and bear baiting pits could also be found, including The Globe theatre. Sex workers in this area were known as "Winchester Geese" as the land was owned by The Bishop Of Winchester. Presumably the geese part of the term refers to the golden eggs these women were laying whilst the bishop got rich off their labour.
The class elements of sex work were also apparent as I was putting this map together, particularly from the 19th century onwards; as salacious "gentlemens guides" list addresses of "ladies" around what is now the City of London and Westminster, whereas the names and places of work of street-based workers appear to be more focused todards the east of the city, and these people have left a much less tangible trace, the most significant being Crossbones Cemetery, where many sex workers were buried in paupers graves.
I also observed a kind of sanitisation over the years, that ties in with our changing view of sex work. Medieval people tend to be quite blunt, they frequently names streets after what trade could be found there, hence the appearance of colourful street names such as Gropecunt Lane in many of Britains medieval towns. In London this was found on Cheapside, close by to other streets including Bordhawelane and Puppekirty Lane, mleaning brothel and "poke-skirt" respectively. Later town leadership from the 15th century onwards changed Gropecunt to Grape, or Grapecount Lane.
The same can be said on sex work involving non cis-gendered, non-heterosexual people. Whilst we can be certain that not all workers were women catering to men, I only found eveidence of 2 addresses offering these services. One of these is from Harris List and refers to a sex worker who catered to women. It's one of the only such references I've ever come across.
Key Refs:
RAITZ, KIRSTYN,ARIANNA (2020) Prostitution, Space and Urban Life in Eighteenth-Century London
and Paris, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online:
http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13754
LostCityOfLondon.co.uk
Linnane, Fergus (2007). London: The Wicked City: A Thousand Years of Prostitution and Vice. Robson. ISBN 978-1-86105-990-1
Denlinger, Elizabeth Campbell (2002), "The Garment and the Man: Masculine Desire in "Harris's List of Covent-Garden Ladies," 1764–1793", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11 (3): 357–394, doi:10.1353/sex.2003.0011, JSTOR 3704587, PMID 17387827, S2CID 29449091
Harris Lists of Covent Garden Ladies 1764-93
Man of Pleasure’s Illustrated Pocket-Book for 1850
The New Swells Night Guide 1847 https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-new-swells-night-guide
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