Covent Garden Ladies

Printed annually between 1757 and 1795 this pocket sized guidebook acted as a directory to georgian london s prostitutes.

Covent garden ladies. Harris s list of covent garden ladies was published yearly between 1757 and 1795 and acted as a concise almanac of prostitutes available for hire in london. Harris s list of covent garden ladies published from 1757 to 1795 was an annual directory of prostitutes then working in georgian london a small pocketbook it was printed and published in covent garden and sold for two shillings and sixpence a contemporary report of 1791 estimates its circulation at about 8 000 copies annually. A a each issue featured 120 190 prostitutes who worked in or near covent gardens often giving erotic details and reviews on the. Historian hallie rubenhold author of a book investigating the handbook of the 18th century pimp found it revealed much about the situation of the courtesans of the georgian period.

At around two or three shillings per copy the pocketbook was. Although covent garden was the centre of sin filled with theatres taverns coffee houses and bath houses there was no designated red light district and women lived in virtually every. Before the adult section on craigslist or hookup sites there was harris s list of covent garden ladies.