Late Victorian Soho: From Sex and Shopping to Police & Radical Politics
The West End was a heady mix of glamorous shopping emporia, political refugees from Europe, street-based and brothel-based prostitution, and the general public just enjoying a day or evening ‘Up West’. Join Dr. Sarah Wise to learn more on this 2 hour guided walk of Soho.
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- Start Date: 15 Jul 2025End Date: 15 Jul 2025Tue (Daytime): 11:00 - 13:00In PersonFull fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00
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What is the course about?
In the late 19th century, public and parliamentary attention turned to how the Metropolitan Police was seemingly unable to tell the difference between an honest shopper and a woman soliciting for prostitution; while at the same time, also turning a blind eye to the sexual harassment of women who ventured into the shopping zones —Oxford Street, Bond Street, Regent Street — to stroll and browse.
Soho had for many years been the place where political refugees had settled, fleeing persecution in Germany, France, Italy and Russia (Karl Marx himself lived for many years on Dean Street). At the end of the 19th century it was the Continental Anarchists who had settled just the north of Oxford Street. On this walk, we will consider locations in Soho and ‘north Soho’/Fitzrovia that became famous – sometimes for all the wrong reasons…
Among our stops will be the site of the Autonomie Club (for Anarchists) in Windmill Street; the House of St Barnabas in Soho Square; the Rose Street Club in Manette Street; and Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus, to consider the policing of the vast vice trade.
What will we cover?
Policing & vice in the late Victorian era
Key sites of interest in the Soho area
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
You should be able to:
Assess social values & attitudes that informed Victorian policing
Identify key sites of interest relating to the Soho area
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
No prior knowledge is required. An interest in the topic and a willingness to follow safety guidance and any instructions from the tutor are your only requirements. You should be able to participate in a 2 hour guided tour along narrow and sometimes busy streets.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Tutor led guided walk. No work outside of the class, but speak to the tutor for recommended reading.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
No other costs. Please come in clothing/footwear suitable for a 2 hour walk around London's busy streets.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Please see our website for further walks available in term 1 next year.
Sarah Wise is an award-winning writer and historian, with an MA in Victorian Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. She teaches social history and literature at the University of California’s London Outreach Center. Her interests are urban history, working-class history, medical history and nineteenth-century literature and reportage. Her most recent book, Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England, was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize. Her 2004 debut, The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London, was shortlisted for the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and won the Crime Writers’ Association Golden Dagger. Her follow-up The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum (2008) was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. She was a contributor to the volume Charles Booth's London Poverty Maps, published by Thames & Hudson/London School of Economics, and appeared on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time to discuss Booth's work https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wsxf For reviews www.sarahwise.co.uk/reviews.html
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.