Have you ever yearned to own a handy pocket guide to the prostitutes of London?
No? I thought not, however if you’re a gentleman of London in the late 18th century then this
was your essential guide to the sex trade around Covent Garden’s lively theatre district.
I’m talking today about “Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies”
Now guides to the London Bawdy districts were nothing new. Ever since the restoration there had
been pamphlets and guides to the racier or seedier end of London’s streets. There had been five
editions of “Wandering Whore” published between 1660 and 1661 and the rather impressively titled
“A Catalogue of Jilts, Cracks & Prostitutes, Nightwalkers, Whores, She-Friends, Kind
Women and Other of the Linnen-Lifting Tribe” was published in 1691. But these were very short term.
In 1754 Harris’s List would change all that. It not only brought the trade more mainstream
but sought to make it a versatile and complete almanac of the sex trade,
it ramped up the language with its sumptuous descriptions and it was updated every year.
Yes, like the Guinness Book of Records it came out every Christmas
with the latest updates. Unlike the Guinness Book of Records, however, it wasn’t cheap. It
cost 2 shillings and sixpence which would put it well out of reach of the working classes.
The average lower class wage in the 1750s was about 6 shillings per week,
so you’re talking a good two and a half full days work, just under half the working week
just to afford the book. When compared against wages today this equates to about £145.00 for
a 100-page book. So this was definitely catering for the man with money, time and wandering lust.
Now Covent Garden wasn’t the only red light district of London but with its proximity to
the theatre district it was the main one. It is said that two thirds of all London’s brothels
were to be found around Covent Garden, Drury Lane and The Strand. Regular viewers may recall we’ve
encountered the bawdy houses of Drury Lane before as they led to the downfall of Jack Sheppard.
In these houses you’d find a melting pot of alcohol, revelry, actresses, artists,
courtesans, criminals and aristocrats, and it is in one of these houses,
the notorious Shakespeare’s Head tavern that one Jack Harris – the head waiter
and self-declared Pimp-General of All England was operating. One of the things that made him,
and the tavern popular was the list of 400 of the most well known prostitutes
in London that he kept behind a desk in the bar. This is the original “Harris’s List”.
What turned it into the published work that has become widely known was the involvement of tavern
regular and poet Samuel Derrick, a professional writer who needed to turn his talents into money,
particularly quickly to escape yet another stretch in Fleet Debtors Prison, and so this truly bizarre
Lonely Planet guide to the Covent Garden underworld was born.
The published original condensed down to around 150 ladies but instead of just
names and where to find them it extended to descriptions, background, health (an important
but often overlooked consideration), general price region and their particular specialities.
Then Derrick added in his literary flair with the most eloquent descriptions and a commitment,
it seems, to never letting a good innuendo go unused. Let’s see an example shall we?
Let us take Miss Kent, of 9 Warren Street, Tottenham Court Road who
appears in the 1793 edition of the guide. “Here the epicures in youth and beauty may satisfy
their most ardent longings. Here Venus seems to have shed her choicest influence; and Cupid has
called forth his choicest arrow of the amorous kind to warm her little breast to soft enjoyment”
Artsy isn’t it? Had Private Eye been going in 1793 then I’m fairly certain Pseuds Corner
would have been full of this. The book is filled with this sort of flowery prose but
they’re not all this complimentary… this is very much an honest review after all.
A description of a Miss Berry in the 1773 edition describes her in the words “almost rotten,
and her breath cadaverous” – and this does make me wonder how she got in the list, but I suppose
that might be what some people are looking for… … and if you are looking for something on the
more, shall we say, unusual area of the market well Harris’s list can help you out as well.
Let’s take Nancy Burroughs of Drury Lane from the 1761 edition
“Very impudent and very ugly, chiefly a dealer with old fellows,
it is reported she uses more birch rods in a week than a Westminster school in a twelvemonth.
In a word this lady will condescend to oblige her companion in whatsoever way he likes,
if she is but sure of being well paid for it”
Quite And very much in
the interests of customer satisfaction the book contains some warnings of which the discerning
gentleman would be well advised to heed… Miss Young of 6 Cumberland Court in 1779
“we mentioned her in the last list as tolerably handsome, but of a disposition mercenary, almost
beyond example, her beauty is now vanished, but her avarice remains, and what is worse, she has
very lately had the folly and wickedness to leave a certain hospital, before the cure of a certain
distemper which she had was completed” – in short, beware of this woman for she carries the pox.
It’s tempting to consider these ladies as the down and out and desperate, but evidence for
the oft promoted image of the innocent young girl being tricked into it by a devious bawd
as shown in Hogarth’s Harlot’s Progress is rare. The reality is that women enter the sex trade for
a variety of reasons and the reasons back then could be very different from the reasons today.
Georgian attitudes to sex, women and the sex trade are complex to say the least
It’s important not to judge this against modern standards, and important not to judge sex workers
at all really. Some of those ladies needed help, some of them most definitely did not.
But in its bizarre way the List did help. For the ladies who made it into the list,
it brought them to the attention of the gentlemen who could afford the book, the higher paying type.
It allowed the woman a lot more freedom to choose her clientelle and a good number of these ladies
became well kept mistresses or even wives of wealthy men and aristocrats. There was many
a lady of the night for whom her appearance in the List dramatically improved her life
The 1764 edition entry for Miss Wilmott has a passage in there that describes her encounter
with Frederick, Duke of York – the King’s brother. Other wealthy gentlemen who have been mentioned
in the List include the King of Hanover, George IV, and our first Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
This is not the common street set. By 1791 Harris’s List was selling
8,000 copies per year but it was its very success that was to prove its downfall.
By the end of the 18th century public opinion was starting to turn against the sex trade as immoral.
Some years earlier George III had issued a Royal Proclamation against "loose and licentious Prints,
Books, and Publications, dispersing Poison to the minds of the Young and Unwary" and "to Punish
the Publishers and Vendors thereof" and this was sufficient to bring the publisher up on charges.
John Roach, who had taken over publication after the deaths of both Harris and Derrick,
was sentenced to one year in Newgate Prison as well as three year’s good
behaviour on pain of a further £150 fine. After this trial,
the List was no longer published and only 9 editions still remain in existence.
What makes Harris’ list fascinating is not only a well written dose of smut, which we all enjoy,
but it offers an insight into the seedy underworld of Georgian Britain, which does not always rise
into the public domain with such prominence. Anyone who wants to read more about the history
of Harris’ List should get the excellent book by Hallie Rubenhold who has done most of the research
into the creation and publication of the list, and the histories of its authors and subjects.
Also if you’re wanting to really get understand Georgian attitudes to sex then look no further
than Kate Lister’s “A Curious History of Sex” and Fern Riddell’s “Sex: Lessons from history”
We’ll put a link into the comments and description below along with the links to online editions
of the original Harris’s List texts you can read for yourselves.
… and while we’re talking of buying books, you may recall at the start
we asked “Have you ever yearned to own a handy pocket guide to the prostitutes of London?”
Well you can. The abridged version of the 1793 edition
has been reproduced by Hallie Rubenhold and is available on Amazon.
Because you just never know when you might need it. Do enjoy yourselves won’t you? Bye bye