Read Online The Sexual History of London by Catharine Arnold - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Catharine Arnold
Ads: Link
the streets of the district every night, waiting for their regulars. Commissionaires in the grand hotels of Park Lane would tell families of tourists not to go to Shepherd Market because of the gauntlet of girls they would have to run. On one occasion, a gang of girls set upon and beat up an American tourist. They were convinced she was a new prostitute trying to move in on their territory. In fact, the unfortunate woman was just a little provocatively dressed.
Focus Cinema, Brewer Street, W1, in 1976, before Westminster City Council imposed advertising restrictions on the sex trade.
As organized crime strengthened its grip on London, many of the Shepherd Market girls became targets for pimps and petty criminals. With corruption rife in the Metropolitan Police, particularly the vice squad, local residents felt helpless in the wake of a crime wave. âA girl was financing three people from the game as well as herself: her landlord, her ponce and the local police,â remembers one local resident, when interviewed by the Independent.
Things became so bad that in 1978 we established the Save Shepherd Market Campaign and took a murder map along to the House of Commons. This showed the position of every murder, act of arson and defenestration of prostitutes that had taken place in the previous 12 months. It was a horrific document. Three days after that, I had my restaurant raided and turned over by the police. It was a public statement, not so much to me as to those who lined their pockets. 15
Eventually, enforcement action from Westminster City Council and an anti-corruption drive by the Metropolitan Police resolved the issue. These days, you are more likely to walk past expensive bars and restaurants than brothels, and the shabby old pub the Maisonette has been replaced by a mosque serving the quarterâs wealthy Arab residents. However, not all the prostitutes have fled. In 2009, when police raided flats in Shepherd Market and reported the prostitutes to the councilâs planning department, council officials wrote to them accusing them of âa change of use from residential accommodationâ â in other words, running a business from a private address, which constitutes a breach of planning law. According to Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), âthe women have been working here safely for more than a decade, which means they havenât âchanged useâ of the properties. The women are a welcome part of the community here and should be allowed to run their businesses without hassle from the police or council.â 16
Niki Adamsâs statement represented a fight-back by prostitutes against the council. In February 2009, when the Metropolitan Police closed a brothel in Dean Street, Soho, the decision was overturned by the magistrates following lobbying from the ECP. This body also campaigned against the closure of the estimated sixty to a hundred flats used by prostitutes across the borough, supported by residents who maintained that the working girls were an integral feature of the diverse local community.
Back in Shepherd Market, the ECPâs argument was that evicting prostitutes from their flats would mean that they were forced to work the streets, where they faced increased danger. âMeganâ, a London prostitute for twenty-five years, has worked out of a Shepherd Market flat for fifteen years and was reluctant to go anywhere else.
âItâs a little village here and we couldnât work in a better place,â she told the London Informer newspaper. âOver the years we have had a great relationship with the police. Whenever they need help tracing a girl who has gone missing they come up and ask our help, because we are open and know everybody. The eight girls here in the flats have all been working for a long time. I donât know why suddenly we have become the enemy. The community supports us and perhaps the council did not realise
Focus Cinema, Brewer Street, W1, in 1976, before Westminster City Council imposed advertising restrictions on the sex trade.
As organized crime strengthened its grip on London, many of the Shepherd Market girls became targets for pimps and petty criminals. With corruption rife in the Metropolitan Police, particularly the vice squad, local residents felt helpless in the wake of a crime wave. âA girl was financing three people from the game as well as herself: her landlord, her ponce and the local police,â remembers one local resident, when interviewed by the Independent.
Things became so bad that in 1978 we established the Save Shepherd Market Campaign and took a murder map along to the House of Commons. This showed the position of every murder, act of arson and defenestration of prostitutes that had taken place in the previous 12 months. It was a horrific document. Three days after that, I had my restaurant raided and turned over by the police. It was a public statement, not so much to me as to those who lined their pockets. 15
Eventually, enforcement action from Westminster City Council and an anti-corruption drive by the Metropolitan Police resolved the issue. These days, you are more likely to walk past expensive bars and restaurants than brothels, and the shabby old pub the Maisonette has been replaced by a mosque serving the quarterâs wealthy Arab residents. However, not all the prostitutes have fled. In 2009, when police raided flats in Shepherd Market and reported the prostitutes to the councilâs planning department, council officials wrote to them accusing them of âa change of use from residential accommodationâ â in other words, running a business from a private address, which constitutes a breach of planning law. According to Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), âthe women have been working here safely for more than a decade, which means they havenât âchanged useâ of the properties. The women are a welcome part of the community here and should be allowed to run their businesses without hassle from the police or council.â 16
Niki Adamsâs statement represented a fight-back by prostitutes against the council. In February 2009, when the Metropolitan Police closed a brothel in Dean Street, Soho, the decision was overturned by the magistrates following lobbying from the ECP. This body also campaigned against the closure of the estimated sixty to a hundred flats used by prostitutes across the borough, supported by residents who maintained that the working girls were an integral feature of the diverse local community.
Back in Shepherd Market, the ECPâs argument was that evicting prostitutes from their flats would mean that they were forced to work the streets, where they faced increased danger. âMeganâ, a London prostitute for twenty-five years, has worked out of a Shepherd Market flat for fifteen years and was reluctant to go anywhere else.
âItâs a little village here and we couldnât work in a better place,â she told the London Informer newspaper. âOver the years we have had a great relationship with the police. Whenever they need help tracing a girl who has gone missing they come up and ask our help, because we are open and know everybody. The eight girls here in the flats have all been working for a long time. I donât know why suddenly we have become the enemy. The community supports us and perhaps the council did not realise
Similar Books
