Sentence:  "<WSD>Gingerbread office</WSD>" was an eighteenth-century slang term for public toilets, which were, Norton argues, meeting places for homosexuals to engage in sexual encounters. "Gingerbread-kake" and "ginger-bred queen" suggest what may happen in the "office" and name those involved. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (slang) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.