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The Spinning House girls: Cambridge University's distinctive policing of prostitution, 1823–1894

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2012

JANET OSWALD
JANET OSWALD*
Affiliation:
33 Panton Street, Cambridge, CB2 1HL, UK
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Abstract:

This article explores the regulation of prostitution in nineteenth-century Cambridge by an appraisal of the committal books of the university prison. Each evening in term-time the university proctors arrested and imprisoned local ‘streetwalkers’ in an attempt to protect the students’ morals. This research offers insight into the ways in which Cambridge's geography and its dual system of governance influenced the policing of prostitution in the town centre. The former compelled students and townspeople to share the same crowded space and the latter enabled the university to enforce traditional patterns of class and gender to control sexuality in the town.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , August 2012 , pp. 453 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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