Stories from the history of the city's oldest profession
doors: 7pm
Under Roman law, prostitution in Londium was licensed and regulated as a legal business, a situation that has generally not been repeated since
Although Roman prostitution was legal, many prostitutes were slaves, and free prostitutes were denied the rights afforded to many other citizens, a situation that has often been repeated since..
Whores, harlots, courtesans, actressess, geese, street walkers, women of the night, prostitutes, escorts - the names may have changed but the presence of sex workers in the city has not.
Two of our foremost historians of sexuality tell tales of the many women, often poor, exploited and outcast but sometimes wealthy, succesful and celebrated, who have plied their trade in London.
Laura Agustín (The Naked Anthropologist) has been a writer, researcher and critical historian all her life. Author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, she has for many years focused on getting the stories out of women and others marginalised because of being poor, foreign, ‘different’ or doing jobs some folks think are Wrong. She has qualified as a walking-tour guide in order to take this focus to the streets, where guided history walks rarely talk about the poor except as objects of charity. Hundreds of her posts and essays are available at www.lauraagustin.com.
Julie Peakman is an historian of eighteenth-century culture who specialises in the study sexuality and pornography. She is the author of Sexual Perversions, 1670-1890, Whore Biographies 1700-1825, The Development of Pornography in 18th Century England amongst many other books inclding the upcoming Libertine London.