The scene at the bawdy house was one of lust and depravity. Lying on a large reflective pewter platter held aloft above the rowdy drinkers was a beautiful young girl, fresh from the country. Casting her clothes aside, she assumed her role as a 'posture moll', striking a series of explicit sexual poses before the braying, dissolute crowd. Eventually, she stood absolutely naked, all modesty cast aside, as the punters bid for her deflowering rights in a Hogarthian scene of innocence corrupted.
For although Georgian London evokes images of elegant buildings and fine art, it was, in fact, the Sodom of the modern age and scenes like this were commonplace. Teeming with prostitutes - from lowly street walkers offering a ' threepenny upright' to high-class courtesans retained by dukes - Georgian London was a city built on the sex trade.
Extraordinarily, he believes that there were up to 62, 'harlots' working in the capital during the s - more than anywhere in Europe, and totalling a staggering one in five of the female population. Cruickshank describes Georgian London as 'a vast, hostile, soulless, wicked all-devouring but also fatally attractive place that makes and breaks, that tempts, inflames, satisfies, yet corrupts and ultimately kills'.
One visitor at the time wrote: 'Certain it is that no place in the world can be compared with London for wantonness'. Famous prostitutes, such as Lord Nelson's mistress Emma Hamilton, became the celebrities of their time, and men of every rank frequented popular bathhouses, or bagnios. Tragically, children were also victims of this trade - prematurely brutalised child prostitutes, some as young as eight, thronged the city's main thoroughfares.
So just how did this come about? Cruickshank believes simple economics hold the key. And for the thousands of girls who flocked to London each year eager to earn their fortunes, so were there those eager to exploit them.
