Private vices - public virtues - E. J Burford

This is a social history of the seamier side of London life, which examines the way in which the earthy "licensed stewes" of the Tudors were civilized and transformed into the "Temples of Venus" of Regency times, and showing how they developed into luxurious establishments catering for every fantasy of the male upper classes.;Drawing on information gleaned from original broadsheets and street ballads, the authors focus on some of the more scandalous affairs of old London. They describe the raucous shows of the Restoration - Priss Fotheringham's chuck-office, the Bridewell Whores' resolution "to use the trade until they dye" and the saga of Mother Cresswell who lived well and died well in Brideswell.;This study, a rampant history of bawds and their various lodgings, from coffee-house to whore-house, delineates the growth of a sub-culture shaped by the development of the professional pimp and procuress, and details the uneasy relationship between the court and the courtesans.