PORNOGRAPHY
See Also: CINEMAS,
DISAPPEARED OR REPURPOSED Porn Cinemas;
THE QUEEN OF
CURVES; MENU
30% Morally Subversive
The writer
Tereska Torr's served in the Free French Forces's corps feminin. Her novel Women's Barracks was
published in English in the United States in 1950. It made frank references to lesbianism. The author took exception to the work being
termed lesbian , stating that only one-and-a-half of its five principal
characters could be termed so. A Commons
Select Committee on Current Pornography deemed the book to be morally
subversive. The work was finally
published in French in 2010 in a rewritten form as Jeunes Femmes en Uniforme.
The British Library
The
Department of Prints & Drawings collection was centred on Cupboard
205. It included cartoons by Thomas
Rowlandson. Other departments of the
Museum had their own equivalent collections; the Department of Antiquities had
a Secretum and the Book Department a Private Case.
During the 19thC
the Museum accepted a number of collections that included a high proportion of
pornographic items. The antiquarian Dr
George Witt built up a collection of over 400 phalluses as symbols of the
early worship of mankind . Henry Spencer
Ashbee (d.1900) worked in the textiles trade.
His business meant that he travelled extensively in Europe and bought
widely. At his death he bequeathed the
British Museum 15,299 pornographic items to the British Museum.
Access to the
Private Case was highly restricted.
Anyone wishing to consult material had to write to the keeper of the
department stating the reason for wishing to do so. Later 20thC novels that were
placed in the Case's collection included William S. Burrough's (1914-1997) Naked
Lunch (1959) and Hubert Selby jr.'s (1928-2004) Last Exit To Brooklyn
(1964). Eventually, the books etc.
were dispersed into the departments general collections.
Location:
Great
Russell Street, WC1B 3DG (blue,
yellow)
See
Also: THE BRITISH LIBRARY The British Museum British Library
Website:
www.bl.uk
Collections
Erotica
sometimes formed part of a larger collection.
The 1st Baron Houghton left a library of 24,000 books. A substantial element was pornography.
Location:
16
Upper Brook Street, W1S 1BE (orange,
yellow)
Fanny Hill
John
Cleland's novel Fanny Hill (1748) did not use sexually explicit words.
See Also:
PRISONS,
DISAPPEARED The Fleet Prison, Fanny Hill
John William Holden
John William
Holden (1832-1873) was an industrious pornographer. His output included works with titles such as
The Romance of Chastisement (1870).
He died as a result of having consumed a surfeit of pork chops. His epitaph was Hotten, rotten, and
forgotten.
Holywell Street
Holywell
Street in Covent Garden had a reputation for being somewhere that pornographic
items could be bought.
Clare Market
became the centre of London's pornography trade.
Location:
Clare
Market, WC2A 4AD (orange, purple)
Holywell Street, WC2B
4LA.
Demolished in 1900. (blue, turquoise)
The Obscene Publications Squad
By the late
1960s it had become apparent to even the Home Office was aware that the
sections of the Metropolitan Police that covered the West End were riddled with
corruption. After several years
Detective Chief Superintendent Alfred Moody became one of the Obscene
Publications Squad officers who was jailed for having had corrupt relations
with Soho pornographers.
Lord Porn
In the early
1970s The Times journalist Philip Howard (1933-2014) was a member of
Lord Longford's campaign to stop pornography.
As part of their investigation the two men went to a sex club. There, they sat in the front row and watched
a two people having sex. During the
proceedings the elderly peer turned to his colleague and inquired What do you
think, Philip? You re a younger
man. Do you find this arousing?
Location:
18
Chesil Court, Chelsea Manor Street, SW3 5QP. Longford's home. (orange,
yellow)
Flat 1, 47 Ladbroke
Grove, W11 3AR. Howard's home. (purple, turquoise)
See Also:
WEST
GERMANY's MIDWIFE
The Obscene Publications Squad
By the late
1960s it had become apparent to even the Home Office was aware that the
sections of the Metropolitan Police that covered the West End were riddled with
corruption. After several years
Detective Chief Superintendent Alfred Moody became one of the Obscene
Publications Squad officers who was jailed for conducting corrupt relations
with Soho pornographers.
Pornographic Magazines
Writing copy
for pornographic magazines provided an entry route into journalism.
See Also:
MAGAZINES
Richard
Desmond
Richard
Desmond became very wealthy through publishing pornographic magazines. He then diversified his interests.
Location:
The Northern
& Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, EC3R 6EN (orange, turquoise)
Paul
Raymond
Paul Raymond
(n Geoffrey Quinn) (1925-2008) did his National Service in the R.A.F.
as a bandsman. He then worked in
variety, ending up as part of a mind reading act. One theatre manager told him that he would
only allow him to perform if his two female assistants appeared topless; for an
extra 10s. a week the pair agreed. He
married a showgirl choreographer. They
exploited a loophole in the Lord Chamberlain's licensing to mount on variety
hall stages still tableaux of topless women.
He decided to
settle in London. Private members clubs
were able to avoid most of the censorship laws.
In April 1958 he opened the Raymond Revuebar in Soho on the corner of
Brewer Street and Walker's Court. By the
mid-1960s he was a millionaire. In 1964
he launched King, a men's magazine that featured articles on cars,
cigars, and military history, as well as tasteful nudes.
In 1971
Raymond bought Men Only. He
installed his girlfriend, the glamour model Fiona Richmond, as the
publication's nominal editor-in-chief.
Other pornographic models launched Club International, Escort,
Mayfair, and Razzle.
He had the
appearance of a perma-tan spiv who had a good tailor.
In 1997
Raymond sold the Revuebar. In 2010
Raymond withdrew from the pornography industry.
Raymond lived
in a suite next door to The Ritz.
Location:
11 Walker s
Court, W1F 0SD. The Revuebar. (red, orange)
58 Wardour
Street, W1D 4JQ. Soho Estates's headquarters. (orange, brown)
See Also:
ESTATES
Website:
www.sohoestates.co.uk
Pornographic
Models
Cosey Fanni
Tutti (n e Christine Newby) was a performance artist who moved to London
in 1973 and for a period worked in the pornography industry.
Website:
www.coseyfannitutti.com
The Retail Act of 1950
The Retail
Act of 1950 meant that shops could sell pornography and alcohol on Sundays but
not The Bible or powdered milk.
David
Backhouse 2024