Town and Gown Prostitution

Illustrations

Illustration 1. Four Mounted Photographs of Cambridge Spinning House (Police Station) c. 1890, Cambridgeshire Archives, 1360/CB/9/49.

Illustration 2. Longitudinal Section of the Wing for the Bridewell Women and Women Felons, Cambridge Gaol, Cambridgeshire Archives, R55/26/11/10.

Illustration 3. Section and Elevation of (Extension to) Female Refuge, n.d. late nineteenth century, Cambridgeshire Archives, R60/27/11.

Acknowledgements

This monograph is the result of many years of challenging work on the issue of ‘fallen women’ and prostitution in the nineteenth century in England and on the archives of the Cambridge University Library and the Cambridgeshire Archives in Ely.

My deepest gratitude goes first to my dear friend and colleague, Professor Logie Barrow retired from Bremen University, Germany, who is an academic with a solid career and prestige in the history of the working-classes and the history of medicine in the United Kingdom. Without his support and advice this monograph would have never seen the light. I also want to express my gratitude to the archivists at the Cambridgeshire Archives because they have always been helpful and supportive in the arduous process of dealing with archival materials and locating manuscripts for my research. Finally, I would like to put in words my gratitude to my family, and especially to my parents, my children and my partner, who are my inspiration in life. To all of them I dedicate this work.

INTRODUCTION

Prostitution and Victorian Cambridge

When I started thinking about the possibility of writing a book on prostitution and the different institutions in Cambridge that were established to control and contain the spread of crime and immorality associated with it, James Smith’s monograph Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment (2008) came to my mind. In this book, he covers the history of the Catholic Magdalene asylums in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries based on archival research in the first part, but in the second part he deals with the cultural representations of these places of confinement for women. The focus is placed on plays and fiction, visual representations like film, and monuments, memorials and art installations dedicated to the Irish Magdalenes. Nevertheless, it was this idea of an architecture of containment that caught my mind. Only some historians like Frances Finnegan or Linda Mahood have tried to encompass the nineteenth-century architecture of containment of ‘fallen women’ in places like York or Scotland. In particular, Frances Finnegan’s Poverty and Prostitution: A Study of Victorian Prostitutes in York (1979) was the first attempt to do that kind of analysis discussing aspects such as prostitutes and their clients, brothels, prostitutes’ lives – touching on drink, destitution and disease – and their rescue and reform in the York Penitentiary. On the other hand, Linda Mahood’s The Magdalenes: Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century (1990) deals with similar aspects of prostitution in Scotland but also analyses the Glasgow system as veiled regulation, establishing parallelisms with the application of the Contagious Diseases Acts in the 1860s in England.

Therefore, I am indebted to Smith, as the title of my book Town and Gown Prostitution: Cambridge’s Architecture of Containment of Sexual Deviance suggests. My aim is to cover some aspects of prostitution in Cambridge in the Victorian period together with all the institutions that dealt with the issue at the time. There is no other similar attempt focusing ←1 | 2→the analysis on Cambridge in the nineteenth century, taking into consideration the peculiarities of a city which was divided into town and gown for many social and political concerns, including the regulation of prostitution. In this sense, the book discusses the singularity of a city divided into two jurisdictions that co-existed – not always in a peaceful manner – in the Introduction together with some characteristics of the trade and the women who lived on it both in town and gown. The first chapter is devoted to the study of archival materials connected with the Spinning House, Cambridge University Prison for ‘fallen women’ as well as with the analysis of two case studies. The succeeding chapters will be focused on two town institutions also involved in the containment of sexual deviance: the Cambridge Poor-Law Union and the Cambridge town and county gaols and the presence of ‘fallen women’ and prostitutes in them. In the case of the Mill Road Workhouse, many of these women received treatment for disease or were assisted in labour in the Infirmary of the Institution. Finally, in the last chapter, the role of the Cambridge Female Refuge in the reform of ‘fallen women’ in the Victorian period will be discussed, paying attention to the connections with the University and the Church of England and other charity organisations. The overall objective will be to establish the links that existed among these town and gown institutions that contributed to the architecture of containment of sexual deviance in Cambridge, creating a middle-class network that tried to regulate the sexual lives of University students and the poor.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Oxford was the only University in Britain. Due to a conflict between many Oxford scholars ←2 | 3→and townsmen in 1209, the former fled to other parts of the country like Reading or Cambridge. At the start, there were no colleges, and the lectures were given in various places like St Bene’t’s Church. Most scholars lived in hostels that later became colleges after obtaining endowments from rich benefactors. These were kings and queens as well as bishops and rich widows. Hostels were similar to boarding houses and by 1280, there were about thirty of them; there was a master, but it was difficult to impose discipline on students who were boys of 14 or 15 years of age, so for University members it was important to establish colleges with their rules and statutes. The first college was St Peter’s House, founded by the Bishop of Ely, Hugh Balsham, in 1284. In the next 100 years, eight more colleges were founded in succession. Later, King’s College was founded by Henry VI in 1441 and Queen’s College by his wife Margaret of Anjou in 1448.1

When the University established there, Cambridge was a busy market town and inland port defended by a castle and was famous for celebrating one of the biggest fairs in Europe known as the Stourbridge Fair on the banks of the river Cam. By medieval times, the town had its own law courts and elected mayor. Cambridge has always been associated with the Fens, a flooded and marshy area with many islands like Ely. Cambridge was on the fen-edge and river trade was essential, with goods transported from and to the city by boat. Local produce was traded, including fish, eels and sedge to the north of the fens, and wheat and barley to the south.²

In Tudor times the University grew exponentially with many new colleges built, Trinity being among them. The sixteenth century was an especially important period with the Reformation and the country becoming Protestant. These colleges were occupying all the riverside area, and they had a significant role in national events, with gentlemanly students coming to them for the first time. However, during the seventeenth century there was turmoil in the country and Cambridge was seriously affected by the Civil War and the break between Parliament and the King. Oliver Cromwell had been the MP for Cambridge to then become Lord ←3 | 4→Protector, and the Parliamentarian Army established their headquarters there. With the restoration of monarchy, peace and prosperity returned to the city and the University with a golden age of science and architecture.3

Thus, by the beginning of the nineteenth century Cambridge had a population of about 10,000 people of which about 10 per cent were members of the University. The traditional division of town and gown continued with both communities depending on each other. The town community consisted of working-class people, many of them employed by the University; the University community was made up of men who were a middle-class group. Market Square with Great St Mary’s, the University Church, was the heart of Cambridge, crisscrossed by streets shared by both town and gown during the day; during the night, it was a contested place, with poor light and pollution in passageways.⁴

By the Victorian period and about 1843, the population was 25,000 people, including undergraduates. After the Enclosure Acts of 1801 and 1807, some new building was taking place in areas that had been open fields, although there was still countryside surrounding the town. There were no houses or buildings beyond the top of Castle Street and only a few houses were being erected in the Chesterton area. Similarly, New Town was growing after 1810, and the Mill Road area after 1845, but Romsey Town was not fully developed till after 1879. The Barnwell district also grew with numerous poor cottages and insanitary courts, quite common also in the centre of town. By 1883, the population of Cambridge had increased to about 35,000 people, but no houses were built beyond Cavendish College, on the North side of Mill Road or between Petersfield Lodge and the Parochial cemetery. A level crossing and a footbridge were built over Stourbridge Common, where the railway was erected, and by 1891, Cavendish Park was being developed.⁵

As far as the University was concerned, the Victorian period brought with it the Prince Consort as Chancellor in 1847. He was in favour of ←4 | 5→changes to compete with German universities in science, but many abuses survived. Other British universities were also serious competitors, like the Scottish and, from the early-mid nineteenth century, London; it was necessary to improve the academic standards. Other influential figures included William Whewell, who was Master of Trinity College and became Vice-Chancellor in 1843, and Dr Cartmell of Christ’s, who was Vice-Chancellor from 1849. Most colleges agreed on reforming their statutes but did almost nothing in the end. The Statute Revision Syndicate was established in 1849, and a Royal Commission was set up in 1850 to enquire into the state of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin and to enhance adaptation to modern times. Both the Syndicate in 1851 and the Commission’s report of 1852 proposed several changes, but the former did not attempt reforms of the examination system; however, the fellow’s lot continued to be celibacy and at least a promise to ‘take orders’ in the Church of England.6

Curricular changes intensified in the 1840s when, to the traditional teaching of theology, mathematics, classics and medicine, the teaching of subjects like law, history, engineering, geology, zoology and modern languages was added. Also, a sciences tripos was introduced in 1848, bringing about an important effect on the University. In 1856 the University allowed students from different religious denominations to take degrees, as Jews and Catholics had been excluded from the University since Elizabethan times. As a consequence, the Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs was begun in 1887, commemorating former students who had died as martyrs for their beliefs.⁷ Nonetheless, other changes came about later. Thus, in 1871 a Bill was passed putting an end to restrictions to all teaching positions, including fellows, university officers, professors and lecturers who were not obliged to be in holy orders, but religious instruction and services remained for the Church of England members. Two further Royal Commissions were established, one to enquire into the finances of Oxford and Cambridge which produced the 1874 Report and another one on scientific instruction to improve the teaching of science. Specific ←5 | 6→chairs were created to be attached to particular colleges, and college taxation was imposed.8

Although there had been no real obligation to keep celibacy since 1860, it was not until 1882 that fellows were allowed to marry, bringing to an end the monastic life that was encouraged to create strong bonds between college members. This measure was thought necessary for keeping the best teachers and so as not to undermine the University’s prestige.⁹ With married fellows living outside college with their wives and families, common rooms became less frequented and college affairs less known. Social life before and after marriage was also permitted. In the case of students, most of them lived in lodgings, and those who could afford it lived in college, officially leading a solitary life. However, undergraduates practised several sports with cricket, tennis and rowing being the favourites, but also athletics, football, hockey and billiards were played. As a result, competition between colleges was fierce in the practice of these activities.¹⁰

Regarding women, they began to be admitted to Cambridge University as late as the 1870s. For Victorians, this was quite a drastic change. This happened thanks to the determination of two relevant women in the campaign that took place at the time, Miss Emily Davies and Miss Anne Jemima Clough. Davies opened Girton College for women at Benslow House (Hitchin), where the first five students were admitted in 1869; they then moved to their current location at Girton in 1873, far away from the male colleges. On the other hand, Henry Sidgwick bought and furnished number 74, Regent Street, so that Miss Clough could be installed there with her first five students; in the end, they settled at their current location as Newnham College near the centre of Cambridge. Women could now attend lectures and take final exams, but they were not awarded proper degrees till 1947. They could also gradually have access to laboratories and share them with male students.¹¹ The University Library flourished and expanded together with residential accommodation, and many laboratories were opened, but despite these changes, many students left Cambridge without an honours ←6 | 7→degree. Subjects proliferated with a variety of academic groupings at colleges, and clubs were created to share leisure outside the curriculum.

All these transformations that the University suffered throughout the Victorian period were accompanied by major changes in the city and its life at the time. In this sense, Josiah Chater’s diaries shed light on family life, work and leisure in Victorian middle-class Cambridge. He was originally from Saffron Walden and established in Cambridge as a businessman opening a drapery shop. He married Agnes Barrett. Their first home was in Chesterton Road; they had fifteen children of whom two died at infancy. The firm had premises in Sidney Street and Fitzwilliam Street, but Josiah changed professions later in life, becoming one of the first chartered accountants in Cambridge. At this stage he took important duties as secretary to the Cambridge Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, the Cambridge Reform Club Building Society, the Cambridge Steam Laundry Company and the Cambridge Street Tramways Company, which changed significantly the shape of the city. He was witness to many momentous events both in town and gown and had an active life in the city participating with his family in many relevant happenings as well as being an active member of numerous associations and organisations.12