London: The Wicked City: A Thousand Years of Prostitution and Vice - Softcover

London has a long history as a vibrant sexual marketplace with a staggering array of wares on offer and this book takes us on a tour of the city's colorful past where all desires were fulfilled. There were brothels with classical paintings and fine cuisine, accommodation houses where one could take one's choice of the pretty street girls, and the bagnios or bath houses in Covent Garden which were praised by no less an authority than Casanova. For homosexuals there were molly houses. Expensively equipped flagellation establishments catered to the many passionate adherents of what was described as the "English vice." There were many attempts to suppress the sex industry, particularly under the puritans, but it always emerged strengthened. It was flexible enough to respond to peaks in demand (such as the Restoration and two world wars) and reached agreements with gangsters, crooked magistrates, and police. With vivid portraits of the enterprising bawds and whores who engaged in the oldest profession in the world, this is a fascinating look at the underside of life in this capital city.