page_title: Prostitution in the United Kingdom
section_title: 17th and 18th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Prostitution in the United Kingdom / History / 17th and 18th centuries
caption_attribution_description: William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress, plate 1, showing Molly's arrival in London, with Colonel Francis Charteris and "Handy Jack" leering in the background, while a syphilitic madame in the foreground procures her first. According to A Harlot's Progress: Brothel keeper Elizabeth Needham on the right
context_page_description: In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex as part of an exchange of sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.
  Though laws regulating sex work exist, they are not always strictly enforced, with some reports of police forces turning a blind eye to brothels. Many brothels in cities such as Manchester, London and Cardiff operate under the moniker of "massage parlours".
  Although the age of consent is 16 throughout the United Kingdom, it is illegal to buy sex from a person younger that is reasonably believed to be under 18. In England and Wales, it is an offence to pay for sex with a sex worker who has been "subjected to force", constituting a strict liability offence - wherein the client of a sex worker can be prosecuted for the offence, even in the absence of fault or criminal intent to force a sex worker to provide sexual services for them.
context_section_description: The presence of prostitution in London during the 17th and 18th centuries is demonstrated by the publication of directories. The Wandering Whore was published during the Restoration period, and listed streets where prostitutes might be found and the locations of brothels. A Catalogue of Jilts, Cracks & Prostitutes was published towards the end of the 17th century and catalogued the physical attributes of 21 women who could be found about St Bartholomew's Church during Bartholomew Fair, in Smithfield. Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies was published during the second half of the 18th century as a pocketbook. It described the physical appearance and sexual specialities of about 120–190 prostitutes who worked in and around Covent Garden (then a well-known red-light district) along with their addresses and prices. Bullough argues that prostitution in 18th-century Britain was a convenience to men of all social statuses, and an economic necessity for many poor women, and was tolerated by society. Nevertheless, a ban on brothel-keeping was included in the Disorderly Houses Act 1751 as part of legislation against public nuisance. Towards the end of the century, public opinion began to turn against the sex trade, with reformers petitioning the authorities to take action.
caption: Detail from William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress (1732), showing Moll's arrival in London and her procurement by a pox-ridden madame.
exif: {}