Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society - Sordid Soho

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

From the Chevalier de Saint-Georges to the Merry Monarch to Madame Jojo and Madame Trenti, the district of Soho in London has played host to many of the naughtiest names in history. And now, we can include Kate Lister on that list.In this episode, join us for a walking tour of Soho with Katie Wignall from Look Up London. You can even follow along, just start off at the black and white hut on Soho Square: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1BQRD8E6Joc1xEniGomROdGSyKX6OLf0&usp=sharing*WARNING there are adult words and themes in this episode*Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Anisha Deva.Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. I am here with your fair do's warning. Fair do's, this is a podcast that contains adult content with adults speaking to other adults in an adulty way to you who is hopefully an adult.

We're actually taking a sordid tour around Soho and learning about its less salubrious history. So we will inevitably be talking about non-apeutic history. So we will inevitably be talking about naughty things, kinky things, rude things, possibly triggering things. It's not really PG-13. And if that's just not something you want to be listening to today, I understand completely. In which case, this is your chance to duck out now. And if you do stay with us and you're offended, well, you're just going to have to say fair-dos.

She did tell us that it was going to be a bit rude. And for those of you that are still with me, I'm ready if you are. Neon lights, bustling bars, thumping speaker systems. Restaurants constantly turning tables and churning out delicious smells, and other smells as well. Crowds growing and shrinking with the daily barbells and theatres, warning guests that the curtain is about to rise. This is London's Soho District. Soho, as it is today, is markedly different from Soho in the past. It still has a bit of a kinky reputation, and there's certainly naughtiness to be found if you know where to look.

But in times gone past, Soho was London's. sex epicentre. And today betwixt the sheets, I am getting dirty with Katie Wignall of Lookup London, who is going to take me on a tour of Soho's Sordid Histories. I got up at an insane hour to record this before Soho's establishment started to open up to the public. Really, it was so early that they were actually tidying up from the night before. But obviously, there's nothing that I wouldn't do for you, dear listener. But if you happen to be near Tottenham Court Road Station, in London, you could walk alongside us with us chatting away in your ear holes. If you want to do that, we started next to the black and white hut in Soho Square.

But whether you're standing up, sitting down or walking along beside us, let's do this. What do you are calling mad? Oh, money, of course. You're supposed to rise when an adult speaks to you. I make perfect copies of whatever my boss needs by just turning a knob and pushing the button. Yes, social courtesy does make a difference. Goodness, for a beautiful time. Goodness had nothing to do with it, during. So, welcome to Betwixt the Sheets, Al Fresco.

I'm only here with Katie Wignall doing a Soho tour, and we are in Soho Square in London. We really are. We're not, do we haven't just fake that? We really are. No, you can even hear the leaf blower. Look, there's a leaf blower over there, which is nice, because we are talking about blowing in a whole other way. As well, that was a cheap joke, wasn't it? Sorry. We started early. It's very early. I'll do better than that. that listeners, right? Okay, but you are the Soho tour expert. You've written books about this, you've written guides about this. What happening in Soho that you don't know about isn't worth knowing?

Yeah, Soho, I think, has always had a fascination for me. I grew up in London and it's that exciting area. It feels a little bit naughty. And when you first explore, you just start picking away at the threads of all the people that have come before you. And I think that's what's fascinating about London. And Soho, in particular, it's such a small area. But there's a small area. But there are reasons that it's so behemian, so creative, so artistic, and also at times very seedy. Is it naughty? Is that a reputation that's deserved? I think it's fair to say that it is naughty. And I think the aim of today is to show you some of the colourful characters.

Through time. Right. Let's do it. Let's get betwixt the sheets with Soho. So we're standing at the moment within Soho Square, which is a lovely little green space. There's like a lovely little black and white hut. Pigeons? In the middle, forever, lots of pigeons. Yes. And the black and white hut is actually a bit of a fake, to be honest.

It's only 1930s. It's not Tudor, I know, I'm so sorry. It looks lovely and lopsided. Soho, you old touch. Just beyond. We can walk over and go and have a look at an authentically old thing, which is just the other side. Soho Square was the very first part of Soho to be devoutesue.

to be developed. And if you think of places like later Bloomsbury, but places like Belgravia and Mayfair, you know, they were set out in these wonderful aristocratic, very upper class, residential squares. But when we look around Soho today, it's not quite the case. It didn't take off. I was actually thinking that it looked quite posh. It's all relative. Northern Plemm. This area, it didn't take off like Mayfair, at least not after a very much. a while there were aristocratic residences and really posh houses and actually I'm showing you an image here from the initial layout of Soho and you can see it

looks like a Mayfair Town Square railings are very organized buildings I see a point that looks well puffed so Soho Square you know had brand ambitions yeah unfortunately it wasn't quite in the right location there were different things that came into place so there were breweries nearby shortly after it was laid out and we're talking sort of 1670s at this point. It became quite a hub for Huguenot immigrants and different immigrants. And so the sort of upper classes of English aristocracy were like, oh, we'll go to Mayfair, I think, actually.

Oh, I see. Soho never quite took off the way that Mayfair did. And a bit like Covent Garden in the 17th century and 18th century, it became a hub of gambling dens and brothels as well. The actual name Soho is from its history as a hunting ground. So this call, this cry of Soho when you see your prey. No, I didn't know that. So I think it's quite fun because many people are on the prowl in Soho still today.

I love it. Are they going in the Brussels going Soho? Maybe, maybe. So I'll show you the statue up ahead here. Right. Because originally Soho Square was actually called King Square. I like Soho. In Christian was King Charles II.

You know, noted, Philanages. Sandra lover of women. Uh-huh. So I think it sort of sets the tone, really, for Soho. You know, this was originally named after him. And what's fascinating about this is it's a genuine 17th century sculpture. It's just here in the middle of Soho Square. And it's amazing that it survives.

And the other little clue that it gives us as well, it's by the sculptor Caius Gabriel Sibber. And Sibber was a Danish immigrant. So again, we have these immigrants who are coming to London, who are artistic, who are talented, who are leading to this really diverse, creative area. Bloody immigrants coming over us sculpting our king. It's a nice sculpture though but I'm quite surprised that's 17th century I don't know why I'm

surprised I'm not a sculpture expert. I think parts of it have been replaced over time definitely looks like a sort of face transplant. Oh right yes and it is a bit battered it's a little but he has been stood outside for the best part of 300 years I wouldn't mean the best Nick either okay so it's quite like that he is the king of Soho yes and it does set the tone and as I said, and even within Soho Square, of course it's hard to find physical evidence of it today, but we get some of the most famous brothels

and party venues in Soho Square, and these spring up in the 1700s. So if I take you out of Soho Square just to the eastern side, we can look at two buildings. Yes. Which used to be the best brothels in town. Right, see you later, Charlie Boy. Let's do it.

Maybe we can stand over. here and then we can see both buildings. So the two buildings that we're looking at now on Soha Square, the first is number 21, which today is a co-working space. I look quite respectable to me. It does look very respectable. The manor house was indeed a very kind of beautiful looking building. We can see an image in the 18th century where you've got this very grand brick townhouse. White House was actually a smaller building just at the left side, but it fits in with this... Very Georgian looking, isn't it?

Yeah, these like aspirations of grandeur that Soho Square had. So for a while, and this was kind of rebuilt in the 1700s, it was a hotel. It was owned by a man called Thomas Hooper. Okay. But then it became one of the most popular brothels, basically from the late 1700s until 1801. And this brothel was known as the White House. The White House.

And it's hard to find out exactly what went on in here. One, because people are a bit secretive. So really, one of the sources that we have is Henry Mayhew. Henry Mayhew, who wrote this seminal book about London Labour and the London Port. When did he write it? 1850s. So he's actually talking about second-hand info that he's got. Oh, of course he is.

I heard this from a friend who was there, Your Honor. So, yeah, I don't want to besmirch the name, you know, of Henry Mayhew. No, he'd never go into it. Actually, he did go into brothels, though, didn't he? Because he was talking to loads of people, so... No, it is very true. And I like to think he went in with the best intentions and raising, you know, awareness.

Oh, I was just trying to help, Your Honor, of course. They're still here that today. But in this case, he's definitely repeating from a secondhand source. What he describes is quite unusual. It seems like it's a combination of a brothel and also a bit of a sort of house of horror, a kind of like creepy, very theatrical experience.

And he talks about in one room into which some wretched girl might be introduced. On her drawing a curtain, as she would desire, a skeleton grinning horribly, was precipitated forward and caught the terrified girl in his bony arms. You know, I'm not one to kink shame. Anyway, you know, great. It's not yuck anyone's yum, but that sounds a bit weird. Yeah, I think we see this around Soho all the time. It's always like the current generation. We think that we've invented sex.

We think that everything is new, but everything back in time. And they had all these themed rooms, there was the shell room, like a grotto. and there was a gold room or painted room. And I think people in the 18th century had these lavish expectations of what a brothel was. There was a lot of competition and so people wanted to have a USP. And we also see that with the brothel, let's say, kind of party venue that was next door. So next door to the manor house at 21, Soho Square, you have today St Patrick's Irish Catholic Church. Nice.

This building is from the 1890s, there's been a church here since the 1790s but it replaced something known as Carlisle House. Okay there's a statue of the Virgin Mary like really eyeballing me at the moment with under a balance that says come and a door. So they're very quite proud of their history on the St. Patrick's websites. They don't shy away from the fact that this Carlisle House was a huge entertainment venue. It was like an assembly room so if you think about Bath and big parties in the Georgian era and carlyle House was run by

a woman called Teresa Cornleys or Cornelis, some people say her name. And Teresa Cornelis was born in Venice and she was a celebrated actor and an opera singer. And she came to London, tried to get into the West End and then she found that it was kind of barred to her. So she turned to what she knew and she was a society hostess. She threw the best parties in 18th century London. And what was fabulous about these was that they were like mast balls. Okay.

So 1770s and 1780s, these were fabulous parties. And of course the thing with masks is that you have this degree of anonymity. Yes, you do. And anything can happen. And so writers at the time and these were heavily satirized, all these prints of kind of people dressed up as bears and monks and nuns and harlequins and there's an amazing etching in Westminster archives of a guy dressed up as a coffin just in a corner of the room. That's extra.

So, you know, people at the time were outraged. They said, you know, this was leading to active homosexuality because people were covered in masks, you know, and very lewd behaviour. And it was all very disgusting. But they were hugely popular. I bet they were. And Theresa was raking in money. Problem was she spent it as fast as it as it came in. So unfortunately, she never quite sort of recouped any of her costs.

Wow, so she really spent then? Yeah, it was on a membership sort of subscription. And so people would sign up and these membership fees just never covered the cost of her lavish decoration, chandeliers, everything that she was trying to create. Also, there was increased competition. In 1772, we get something called the Pantheon, which was on Oxford Street. You might know there's a Marks and Spencer's Art Deco building called Pantheon. And that was the site. So when that opens, I think in just about nine months later, she goes completely bankrupt.

Oh, Teresa, gutted. I know, and there's all the sorts of myth-making and stories about her. One newspaper reports, you know, she's selling asses milk in Knightsbridge, you know, to get by. I'm not sure how true that is. How lucrative donkey milk would be. Yeah, it's a real fall from Grace. And actually, she's in and out of debtors prison, and she dies 1797. Got it.

And I think that's what happens when you're looking into the sex history of Soho. There are great winners, and there's also great losers in the story. there's real vulnerability. And the problem is when you see lots of people sort of making it big, it attracts lots of people who are very vulnerable into the trade. So Teresa had a great sort of fall from grace. You know, at her height, it was absolutely amazing. Was she a lover of Casanova as well?

Yes, exactly. So she was a lover of Casanova. They met, I think, when she was only 14. See, that's not cool. No. That's just... Not great. Not great.

So they actually had a daughter to get. Even worse. Right. So the daughter Sophia, and it's quite sad really because Casanova comes to London, and there's quite a lovely story, actually, this changing of power. Because when he met Teresa, she was on the up. He helped her career. But when he comes to visit her in London, she is riding high as this society hostess of these masquerade balls. And there's a lovely story that she keeps him waiting, you know, to go and see her.

And he flounces off. He's very upset about having not been seen immediately. by his ex-lover. So she was really young when she was doing this then? How old was she when she was being the hostess with the mostest? I think in her 30s, a bit of time had passed when she came over to... I thought maybe like she'd been 16 years old and like trying to put on her mother. That's amazing for a 16 year old.

No, she'd brought with her daughter and I think Castanavia unfortunately drove a bit of a wedge between her and her daughter. On her death, her own daughter said that she didn't want to pay for her funeral. Oh, no. Her sort of immoral life was fit for a porpoise grave. which I think is really sad. Where is she buried? Do we know? Good question.

I'm not sure. When you, ever you're trying to research the lives of historical women, often they just turn up in the records, don't there? There's this like brief burning flash and then they vanish from all trace.

It can be so difficult to find where people were buried, where people were born, any record of them because women's lives just weren't recorded in the same way that does my fucking tits in that does. Like, where is she buried?

I see it. I'm sure the answer does exist somewhere, but I don't know off the top of my head. There's a mission for anyone listening to this. Let us know. Let us know. Let's do it. Right, onward and upward. So we're walking out of Soho Square

and we're going to go along Greek Street. Again, a link to different immigrant communities that are settled in the Soho area. I think what you do notice, especially in terms of wider London history, the cyclical nature of places, buildings, people that get drawn to certain neighbourhoods in London. And the White House, this brothel that we were talking about at 21 Soho Square, later in the 19th century, it became a condiment factory.

And I just like this idea that it's still saucy, just, you know, different sauciness. I like that. It's one of the things that we forget, because, you know, everything is online, it's really easy to access anything that you want, any kink fetish or community at all. But before the internet, not even that long ago, you'd have to have certain areas to go to. There would be a brothel area because that's where you went. That's how you knew where they were. Absolutely. And it was in the proprietor's interest to cater to all those tastes as well.

So we're going to pause here, which is opposite the old pub, the pillars of Hercules, which has now been transformed into a different cocktail bar. And this is a lot more of a subtle knot to the sex industry. And we're talking about the sort of current use of Soho as a red light district. And in order to understand a bit more about the context, we have to go way back to the 1950s. 50s and something that is known as the Wolfenden report. What's the Wolfenden report? Yeah, the Wolfenden report gets its name from the chairman of the committee, John

Wolfenden. And basically they were charged with this kind of examining the gay community, specifically homosexual men, and also about the sex industry. And it was with a view to sort of cleaning up London and wider UK and also looking at how the laws against the homosexual community were working or not working. Now John Wolfenden in the team that he assembled to look into this as an inquiry were no friends of the gays. They were not there to really help people, which I think it's kind of fair to say at the time.

You have quite an extraordinary group of heads of the church and leaders of higher education. The vice president with Glasgow Girl Guides was also on the committee. So it was quite a very well. Who can we assemble to talk about hookers and gay? The girl guides? The girl guys. Exactly. Who else?

But the extraordinary thing about the Wolfenden report is it comes in the wake of the Second World War, the atrocities that were committed by the Nazis. And Wolfenden, despite any of his personal beliefs, he finds himself unable to interfere in other people's private lives. The report that the committee find in 1957, when they published their findings, it's with this proposal that there must have remain a realm of private morality and immorality, which is in brief and crude terms, not the law's business. Damn straight. And we just kind of underestimate just how significant that is, that that got written into law. Exactly. And I think especially considering the people

that were charged with making this report. And this trickles down through society. Some people are outraged. You know, members of the committee tried to distance themselves from the report because they felt that it didn't align with their own personal views. Later it actually came out, the Wolfenden's son himself was gay, and so there was a bit of scandal that he'd sort of messed around with this. But the point is, no, it isn't anyone's business. Because up until then, homosexuality or just indecency, which is hideously vague and can be anything related to homosexuality,

was punished really severely under the law, wasn't it? It was pretty severely, and we know famous cases like Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing. And so this, having actually spoken to gay men during the report, they found shock horror that it was detrimental to their mental health and the fact that their... And didn't stop them being gay? No, funnily enough. And their way of life being criminalised, you know, was having a huge effect on them. The Wolfenden Report also had an effect on sex work. And this was effectively to banish women from the streets.

Like many laws that we have concerning sex workers, it never really works in favour. of the sex worker. It is all about tidying them away. Any element of criminalisation doesn't help vulnerable people. Exactly. And it pushed them upstairs, pushed them into working by themselves. It was illegal as it is today to be working with someone who could possibly help keep you safe. Under UK law, a brothel is illegal and a brothel is defined as anywhere where there's more than one person working together. So anywhere that two people are working together to maybe stay safe, can't even have a situation where a sex worker has got what you might think of as a bouncer or somebody just that and that suddenly becomes illegal.

The law forces people to work on their own, which is dangerous and shit. It's exactly true. And again, when I tell this to my groups on tours around London, people are shocked at this vulnerability that women are placed in. So coming back to this kind of subtle signs that we can see around London today, if we cross over the street and have a closer look at one of the doorways, So we're now at number eight, Greek Street, and you've got a very sort of anonymous looking doorway, but the way that you can tell that there are sex workers who are working here is on the doorbells and the little sort of colourful post-its, which are just on the bells on the other side here. Yes, I can see.

All right, so there's two names in bright orange neon. So it's there if you know where to look for it. Other signs might be like models or, you know, neon. lights and things like that, which again, you know, people are walking by on their way to work. You'd never know. You'd never know unless you know what you're looking for. No, exactly. And just as these people are working, you know, obliviously everyone else is on their way to work as well. Yep. Even though it's nine in the morning, my friend always said you'd be amazed at how many clients you get really early. Really? Yeah, just on the way to work.

I did actually, during one tour once, I was stood outside there and a guy walked out. Yeah. And, and, you know, I always try to, especially in residential areas, you don't want to. too much attention to it. Well, you want to be sensitive. People are working here. If I turned up at someone else's work today, you can't talk too much, you've got to be very careful with this stuff. Exactly, it's, you know, it's just common courtesy, I think.

Because you don't want to have a place the woman in danger. Exactly. And yeah, but he was very surprised to find a group of about 15 outside to greet him. But no, it's everywhere once you start looking for it, once you scratch the surface, and it's fascinating because it's like this whole subculture that exists. You wouldn't know it unless you know it. Totally, totally. So we're currently walking along Bateman Street

and I'm taking you to the lovely Meared Street, which is a wonderful little 18th century street and it gives you such a good impression of the kind of residential quality of Soho, low-rise, Georgian housing. I mean, it would cost a bum to live around here now, wouldn't it? Yes, pretty expensive. Pretty expensive. I mean, it's bad enough for London.

but for a northerner when we see these kind of price like honestly it's just like don't you want to ask what the price of a pint is Kate oh my gosh we have that conversation you got oh my god how much that's what we have to say as we're walking along Bateman Street the pub on the corner is the crown and two chairmen and actually it has a rather lovely golden hanging pub sign and it's a good nod to a lovely part of London's history which is the rise of the sedan chair so the sign shows these two birds two burly looking guys, they're holding big poles and attached to the poles, is a little box where a woman is sitting in the box. And these sedan chairs were the kind of Uber of

their day. The Uber of their day. Wow. So you could hire them, you could hail one down in the street, and you could also kind of have your own private sedan chair if you are wealthy enough. But one thing that I think is a nice nod to this sexual history that we're talking about today is they were perfect if you were conducting illicit affairs. Because you could draw the curtains of these sedan chairs. Imagine being the pod bugger that had to carry them

if people are doing that in your sedent chairs. And you know, these guys were strong. They would run through the streets. Especially- With two people shagging inside. Well, that's not what I, you've jumped to conclusions. Sorry, right, sorry. Imagine you've got one lady who's in the sedan chair.

She in this little box is able to be carried from her own front door with the curtains drawn Nice. Right into somebody else's house. Through the front door, so she's traveling in disguise. It's the equivalent of the black towel limo. Oh, I see. Yeah, no no naughtiness in the sedanship.

I mean, no suspension. How did that imagine? It must have a massive biceps. Time for a quick break from all that walking, and I'll be back with Katie in just a minute. March 2023 marked 20 years since the start of the Iraq War. The war was waged to rid the world of a brutal dictator, yet it would end Mard in controversy. So why did the Iraq war go so badly wrong? And what legacies has it left behind today? Well, I'm your host, James Patton Rogers, and every Monday on the Warfare podcast from

History Hit, we're exploring a different aspect of this tumultuous period in history. We'll be asking, what was the role of the UK government and Prime Minister Tony Blair? Could the Secretary of State legally order British forces into Iraq? And could British forces follow that law. And how did ISIS rise from the destruction left behind? But ISIS, this peculiar strain that we all came to know very well in the mid-2010s, really got it start because of the US invasion of Iraq. Join me, James Patton Rogers, on the Warfare podcast from History Hit, as we look back on one of the most controversial conflicts in recent history. Made it into Mid Street. And if we just pause here, we're outside number seven. Do you get what I mean?

beautiful Georgian houses, brick, wooden shop fronts. They have been restored, but they give a really lovely impression, you know, of what these streets are like. And at number seven, you might be able to see just on the front door, above the door knocker, there was actually a sign that used to be above this door knocker, but it's been taken down relatively recently. And this sign, if we were to see it, would have read, this is not a brothel. There are no prostitutes here. And it causes many a love. You often see people taking photos of this kind of in-joke.

There's the backstory there. What happens is it would make someone need to put that sign on their door? Well, this was the in-joke. I'm showing you an image here of Sebastian Horsley. Sebastian Horsley lived at 7th Street, and he put up this sign because he used a lot of sex bear killers. He did, yes. And so the in-joke did really look like a brothel because there were so frequently sex workers who were coming here. So that was the sort of inside joke. Sebastian Hawesley.

Have you read his autobiography? I haven't read biography but I'm well aware of he is quite an eccentric. Yes, eccentric is the words. It came from a quite a wealthy but a very dysfunctional family, lived in Shepherd's Market, another notorious sex work hub and then moved to Mayfair. And he actually has quite a wonderful quote about Soho, which I'll read to you. He says Soho is a mad house without walls, men impersonating women, women impersonating men, human impersonating human beings, millions of people being lonely together. Soho is about hunger and soho is about need, like a creature possessed of nothing except our stomach and genitals. I've never loved a place more. That's good, I like that. That's good.

So Sebastian Horsley is relatively recent, probably the most recent class that we're talking about today. He actually only died in his 40s in 2010. And whenever you're talking about someone that is more recent, I think there is an extra layer of sensitivity because people, are alive now who knew him. Now, I've read his autobiography, but I never knew him personally. Personally, I can't say I warned to him from his autobiography. I found it deeply shocking in places, but I do know that other people who know him describe him as warm and kind and generous and funny.

He also loved playing up to the eccentric nature in the dandy character. He dressed in outrageous red top hats, suits, beautifully tail lines, all covered in sequence. And he reveled in the bazaar. and horrifying people. And I think what's interesting talking about the sort of sex industry today is that Sebastian is not scared to kind of question our hypocritical nature. In his autobiography, he says, I don't think that sex workers necessarily feel frustrated and exploited,

but middle class intellectuals who sit around dinner tables formulating their opinions for them, always tell me that they do. And I felt sort of called out. You know, when I read that in his book, I thought, I was here on my moral high horse, and then I thought, I know nothing about this. And so I think it's interesting to consider the nuances within that. That's true.

He was an original, wasn't he? At the very least, he spoke his mind. Exactly, exactly. And I think in that way, he is a representative of Soho's colorful characters. Definitely. Nice house, too. Yeah, not bad.

Not bad. So from here we're going to move back to the Georgian sex industry. Let's do it. Now we're standing on Rupert Street and I'd like you to look up to this beautiful neon sign, which under the cold blue light of London doesn't quite do it justice. But you've got to imagine that it's nighttime and this is like a beacon. It's calling people to the review bar in these bold red neon lights. and you get a sense of a woman sort of moving her legs, shaking, shaking her skirt and sort of giving us a bit of a show.

This doesn't exist today, the Raymond Review Bar, but when it landed on the Soho in the London scene in the 1950s, it was the first of its kind. It was the UK's first nightclub that had full frontal stripties, nudity. It definitely was shocking at the time, and we had to consider as well. It technically wasn't legal to have that on stage. But Raymond was very clever about this. And when I say Raymond, I'm talking about Paul Raymond, known as the kind of king pin of Soho. Now, Paul Raymond, who was born in Liverpool,

he became a sort of pornography and strip club baron. He was in the right place at the right time to buy up huge amounts of property, and he became incredibly wealthy. He owned 400 properties in the West Stand. That today is now. Soho Estates, which is still a huge landowner in this area. But Paul Raymond...

It's a lot of porn, isn't it? It's a lot of porn. The pawn baron. He was definitely raking it in. And he saw this need to cater for a more exciting kind of theatrical style venue. And the way around it was that he wasn't operating as a theatre, i.e., he didn't need censorship. He could get around the censorship laws by being a private members club. Oh, clever.

So by operating as a private members club, he was able to really do what he wanted. And you see that being taken up all around Soho that if you're a private members club, and by the way, the fees to join are very reasonable. The drinks prices, maybe not so much, but anyone could be a member of this private club very easily. And so it really takes off. And at the beginning, it's incredibly sort of exciting and quite fancy, really champagne being served. But then it gradually becomes a little more seedier. and unfortunately by the 1960s as we've heard the Wolfenden report comes in and there is an attempt

to clean up in air quotes Soho we have to remember that Soho is still a residential community there's a primary school just around the corner about 2,000 residents so everything can be found in Soho so by using this private members club tactic they were able to get around the censorship laws and there were thousands of members within the first two years as you can imagine Now, with the crackdown that followed from the Wolfenden Report, in theory, in law, it was meant to be cleared up. In reality, it just allowed huge amounts of organised crime and police bribery. These kind of porn squads in the 1960s were taking huge bribes from sometimes legitimate, sometimes criminal businesses. And it was only really in the late 1970s, the early 1980s, that residents had had enough.

and then there was an actual crackdown of these sex establishments. Just to give you a bit of a statistic on it, by the mid-1950s there were five sex shops in Soho. And then by the 1980s, there was 164. So there really was a boom because of this underhand tactics and ignoring from the police. Wow. Do you know how many there are today?

No, I don't know. Not as many as 164. And actually, we're standing outside the original adult store. And there's definitely not as many as that. But it's all gone online, hasn't it? It's just more discreet. So on that note, we're going to walk through the very tiny Walkers Court.

And going back to this idea of the cyclical nature of history, we're walking through Walker's Court, which is the entrance to the Box Nightclub. A kind of nod to the New York, outrageous sort of nightclub with sex shows and burlesque performers. And it always reminds me, you know, the outrage from reporters who went to the opening nights of the box.

in London sound very similar to the outraged satirical comics who were talking about Teresa's masquerade balls you know there's always something to be outraged by nothing new under the sun and of course all the outrage tends to help the publicity doesn't it well that was certainly the case with paul raymond actually he had fantastic performers one of them was a snake charmer and this caused a lot of outrage and then the brilliantly named bonnie bell ding-dong girl i think that's right And these were named workers in the press. And he had to pay a fine because it was too outrageous for censorship.

Okay. But he recouped that 5,000 pound fine in the publicity of it. So we're going to pause here on Berwick Street market. We can get all the smells and the sounds of people setting up. Yeah, it's a... Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm tempting you with all the smells here. So we've got an array of little street food vendors. Berwick Street there's been a market here for hundreds of years and there's nothing

to see of the property that I mean I talk about but it was a long Barrack Street on the corner a little further up towards Oxford Street and this was a brothel again and it was the site of Mrs. Goadbeads brothel and again we see an example of entrepreneurship of having to have a USP and to basically position yourself in a good PR sense and in 1773 the Covent Garden magazine says that Mrs Godvey, that elegant abbess, has fitted up an elegant nunnery on the corner of Marlborough Street and she's laying on a stock of virgins for the ensuing season. This is all of course very non-agny, sort of wink wink, wink these virgins and reading this,

I always feel slightly uncomfortable that hopefully they were not underage girls but of course they probably were. These virgins were charged as virgins for as many clients as she could get away with and then would lower the price for it. So Mrs. Godbey runs an amazing establishment just like Teresa, who is just a few streets away. She is one of these success stories within the sex trade in the 18th century. She holds on to her money, whereas Teresa doesn't. Always invest. Always invest. Always save your money. She manages to put some money away. She can retire pretty comfortably. What happens to these poor quote unquote virgins that she's securing. Again, they're lost to us from his money.

So as well as kind of, you know, reveling in the sort of naughtiness of the story, it does hammer home the sheer scale of what could happen to you as then and now, you know. Yeah. And there are some winners and there are unfortunately some losers in the story. Yeah, always more losers than winners. But it was a really ferocious time. It was very much kill or be killed, isn't it? You know, I don't want to glorify any of this as horrific things, but it was, I want to make a living. Otherwise, there's no welfare state system.

There's no support for any of these people. of these people. I'm not saying any of this is okay but brutal world. That's the thing I think trying to strike a balance on the tours and when we talk about these women's stories that we celebrate their achievements when they're there and their entrepreneurship and their ability to make money but also to try not to glorify it. It's kind of just it is what it is but there's lots of references and so-called harlotographies of the period in the 18th century writing about famous boards and madams and they go into explicit detail about how to fake girl virginities and sell them at a premium. They probably weren't. They were just marketed. It was a racket.

It was a racket. And they've got like things like soaking a sponge in blood and inserting it into China or like a chicken's heart was another one. Anything to just kind of make blood. 18th century madame we said that a virginity is as easily made as a pudding. Oh my goodness. So that's the money isn't it? That's the money shot. There you go. So we're winding our way backtracking down a little alley called Greens Court. and we're heading to Brewer Street, which really has the healthy Soho mix of some adult shops, but also expensive sushi restaurants and bakeries and all sorts of lovely foody treats. Yes.

And the building, again, it's sort of a theme on the tour in this area. It no longer exists today. It's actually the site of a very upmarket gym, third space. Wow. And it's in a kind of 1930s Art Deco building. But there was a man who lived in a house that was on this site. So it's right down towards the end, but it has this beautiful sort of arched, white-tiled art deco-style frontage

on the left-hand side or the south side of the street. Yeah. Just up ahead. Oh, yes. And it's the site of 71 Brewer Street. And for over 30 years, this was the home of the Chevalier de Aeon. So Chevalier is French for night. So we're still in the 18th century. Chevalier was born a man, the heir to his father.

It was a noble family, but they were very, very poor. And he was trained as a lawyer and a kind of diplomat, and he was sent across the Russian border to work in the Russian court. And a very exciting aspect of the Russian court at that time was cross-dressing. Apparently the Russian empresses had fabulous legs and wanted to show them off in men's clothing. Why wouldn't it? It seems very legitimate. So the Chevalier was part of this cross-dressing, masked balls, very similar time period that we talked about with Teresa Cornelis.

And this contemporary sketch of him shows him literally sort of spliced in half. The right side of his body is dressed in male clothes and the left side of his body is in female clothes with beautiful brocaded dresses and a huge feather plume and wig in his hair. And the kind of inference is that. the chevalier, whilst smiling, quite liked, cross-dressing. And took this on as part of his identity. So he left the Russian courts. He was exiled from France as part of the French Revolution.

He fled to England. And he was always waiting for his pension from the French army, that this never came. And so he did quite a risky move. And he decided to publish a book of state secrets about France, which made him, yeah, quite a bold move. He did. He did.

And for the England, English, you know, this made him a hero. People loved the fact that he was digging back at the French. But what he did was very clever. And in this way, he exemplifies that kindy entrepreneurship that we talked about. And he said, actually, there are two volumes of State Secrets. And the second one is the real juicy one.

Nice. And in order to not publish it, you can give me the pension. And the French agreed. I bet they did. And so he managed to tide him over for a little bit. So the Chevalier was a notable. figure, a sort of celebrity, you know, in Georgian London society, he would also make money by performing fencing demonstrations dressed as a woman, which was a sort of hilarious scene for the

waiting crowd. Something that happens later in his life when he's age 59 is incredibly interesting, I think, for us today. And that is that under questioning by the King's Bench, he actually, I suppose we could say, comes out. He says, actually, I've been living a lie. and I was born a woman. Wow. And I would like to live my life as a woman. And so now she, the Chevalier, is still living in Soho, but there is still all these questions.

It's the height of gambling. People's past times were really wrapped up in waging bets. And the Chevalier, like Teresa that we heard about, struggle to manage their debts and ended up in quite impoverished circumstances in Bloomsbury. Now, because of the intrigue about her gender identity, Unfortunately, the Chevalier didn't get any dignity later in life.

People discovered their death and broke down the door where the Chevalier had been living in Bloomsbury to satisfy their curiosity on whether he was born a man or a woman. Yeah, it's a real sad end. And in many ways, you know, these stories of, you mentioned before, people who burn so brightly in life, sadly do not get the dignity. But I think, you know, Westminster Council, a blue plaque on the building to the Chevalier would be such a lovely... I think so. ...addishol, ...to the street scene.

There is actually a portrait of the Chevalio that you can find in the National Gallery when it reopens, the National Portrait Gallery. There she is. There she is. It was labelled previously as woman in a hat. We see to all...

So, you think French revolutionary about that. There might be the colours, the kind of the trick-a-coloured colours. Absolutely. So she is sat with a beautiful sort of black looks like kind of satin-y dress, wearing medal that Chevalier was given for his then-ne.

duties a fabulous hat with a big ostrich feather in it but there's something you know not quite right to our eye from these portraits that we usually see this is a face that is has a bit of a five o'clock shadow it does it does it's interesting you kind of thinking like what was the artist doing there because the face is very masculine and as you said there is stubble detail there as well isn't it so it's definitely a portrait that I recommend to people when the National Portrait Gallery what a fascinating life going to have a look because it takes you back And I think as well, we're tempted to think that gender fluidity and identity is this new thing that we've created.

But of course, it's not. There are examples all throughout history. And the Chevalier is one of the most intriguing. Trailblazer. Exactly. So we're going to continue now down Great Windmill Street. The clue is in the name. If we think back to this time when Soho was a very rural place, there was literally a windmill on the sides of this area, hence the name.

But the windmill that we're heading to is now a nightclub. But it comes into its own as a venue in the early 1900s when it was, firstly, a cinema, and then it was converted into a kind of variety show and theatre. And this was the famous windmill club that was run by Laura Henderson. So you may have seen the film Mrs. Henderson Presents, played by Judy Dench. And her partner in business was the wonderfully named. Vivian Van Dam, played by Bob Hoskins. They were quite the duo and they set about creating an enticing space with the most beautiful

women who were performing. Now, as I mentioned, early 1900s, we have censorship that is still in force and so you're not allowed to show nude women on stage. Oh no. However, they set about planning a loophole to this problem in which... Vivian Van Dam goes to the Lord Chamberlain who's sort of making sure that everything is good and proper when people are on stage. And Van Dam very successfully argues the fact that, you know, just down the road from here, you've got the National Gallery. And there seems to be no problem of looking at naked women when we say that they are Venus and they are classical nudes and it's all very proper.

And so these women on stage in the Windmill Club became almost statues. They were living statues, but they did not move. and the Lord Chamberlain was sort of like rolling his eyes and saying, fine, if they move, it's rude. So they would perform these amazing tableaux, striking incredible poses with amazing stage set. And these beautiful, statuesque women would stay stock still and the lights would go up and everyone could admire them. Then the lights could go down and they would change position and then strike a new pose. As time went on, the stage sets, they pushed the boundaries. They kept pushing them again and again.

So there might be other performers who was closed, you know, with fans or stage sets that were revealing the women to make it a bit more erotic. Or they might be revolving on a stage, but they're still not moving. So they were really trying to push this boundaries. The Windmill Girls, I think, compared to Raymond's review bar that we talked about earlier, because we're now in the 1950s, what we can do that we can't in the 80s, 18th century is get the words of the actual workers who were at the windmill club. And Polly Perkins, who auditioned to her from the age of 15 actually.

She said she knew nothing about the place. I had no idea the audition would involve taking my clothes off, but it was an amazing atmosphere. It was the warmest, kindest place. Everyone was really lovely and an older windmill girl would show you what's what. Iris, who was her friend and kind of a mentor, took her under her wing and we've been friends all this year. You know, these guys were working hard. They were doing six shows a day.

That's a lot. From 1115 until 10.30 at night. I used to be a life model as well. I can tell you now, standing there in the nip, trying to stay still for ages, is not easy work. You think it is, but that is not easy work. No, it's extraordinary hardgoing, and these women were proud of their jobs.

And in the 1950s, this allowed them independence, and it allowed them to actually, the idea that you get is these empowered women who felt very protected by Van Damme, by Henderson, and by the other women that were working around them. And I think it throws into stark contrast this post-Wolfenden world where women cannot work with other women. They are forced into isolation. So the big thing about the Women War is during the Second World War, quote, we never closed.

We never closed. And they kind of embody this idea of the blitz spirit and keeping calm and carrying on kind of through it. And entertaining soldiers who might never come home again before setting off. And I think that's what leads to Sohib having this appeal to do. This idea that in a bombed out grey London, there was a place with neon lights that drew people in that felt a little bit edgy, a little bit naughty, but was exciting. And it's that appeal of Soho that leads us to want to explore it today. Just coming back to the cyclical history on the site of the Windmill Theatre, we have a blue plaque here to Dr. William Hunter, who was an anatomist who literally peeled away the skin of dead bodies to examine their physical bodies. and I love the idea that 100 years afterwards,

we have men looking in very much the high quality detail of women's bodies here. Nothing changes. You know, it's just a different version of events. You have just been amazing. Thank you so much. I can walk around with you all day. I really could.

You've just been incredible. And if people listening want to know more about you and your work, where can they find you? How can they come on a tour? Yeah, thank you so much, Kate. So my company is Lookup London. My website is lookup.london. And as well as Soho, I run 13 different public walks all over London.

And as a qualified blue badge guide, I take people all over on private tours as well. You can also follow me on Instagram at Look underscore Up London on TikTok at Lookup London as well. Thank you so much for taking us on a tour. I have loved every second of this. You're so welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening.

And thank you so much to Katie for joining me. I had so much fun. And if you like what you heard, please don't think. get to like, review and subscribe wherever it is that you get your podcasts. And if you have something that you would really like us to look into, or if you just want to say hello, you can now email us at betwixt at historyhit.com. Join me again, Betwix the Sheets, the History of Sex Scandal and Society, a podcast by History Hit.