Thread by @sarasheridan

🧵About the historical sex trade in Edinburgh. Goodmorning. The go to starting place is Ranger's Impartial List of Ladies of Pleasure published 1775. It contains 66 entries of 'hoors' around town. Here's Lady Agnew's listing👇For sure there were more than 66 but it's a start /1

Lady Agnew was nothing new. Edinburgh had long been a 'stewing pot' Here's a prosecution from 1564 via @BeattieDr 'hur' this time not 'hoor' When prosecuted women cd have their hair cut short or be sent beyond the city limits until a 'relaxio' was ordered and they cd return/2

Once the New Town was built the sex trade was relegated to the Old Town. Here's a Victorian photo of a sex worker in a door which is recognisable as Acheson House. Known as the Cock & Trumpet (see the figures on the pediment) James McLevy mentions it in his 1830s police notes. /3

Belle Brodie in The Fair Botanists is a courtesan so I placed her house at 17 Warriston Cres 👇 (beyond the city limits at the time bounded by the Water of Leith) The 20th century's most famous Edinburgh brothel was also beyond the Leith at 17 Danube St run by Dora Noyce 👇 /4

Working beyond the city limits was smart. Prostitute Margaret Burns was banned from her Rose Street rooms by the Lord Ordinary tho she contested his judgement. After her death (in her 20s - the life of a Georgian prostitute was tough) Rabbie Burns wrote a poem about her. /5

Sex workers cd be confined in the Magdelene House (first set up on the Canongate nr the Cock & Trumpet) & the Lock Hospital (where they cd be examined & detained against their will) Such was the fear of venereal disease that city councils sometimes passed bizarre legislation /6

In Glasgow for example, the council made it illegal for women to live alone. FFS. Contraception was dodgy also. Here is a modern day recreation of a Georgian condom. Made. From. Cotton. With. A. Ribbon. On. It. 😂 These also came in animal gut. Lovely. /7

Just for info I have never come across prosecutions of or a guide to rent boys. This may be cos male prostitution happened w/in the confines of men-only clubs, which were rife across the city. The National Trust sometimes runs 'Intimacy Tours' theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/j… /8

.@Anstey_Harris & I went on this tour a while ago & enjoyed. I immortalised a couple of Edinburgh's many historical sex workers in Where Are The Women & also wrote Belle in #TheFairBotanists. The research was fascinating but sad. The double standards of the patriarchy in action/9

Tx for reading my historical sex for sale in Edinburgh 🧵 Want to read my research in action? My books are here: uk.bookshop.org/lists/sara-s-b… Feel free to add more info to the thread - that's what threads are for. Plus I started a new insta account to follow instagram.com/thefairbotanis… ♥️

I also want to add cos someone has messaged, that I don't know of any witch trials that were instigated against sex workers. Women were certainly penalised for their sex lives tho - anyone who was 'different' stood to be accused. Go to @witchesofscotl1 podcast - it's all there!