The Devil's Mudbath- Victorian Prostitutes
Extract from Tough Times and Grisly Crimes
The subjects of these photographs may look like they are posing proudly for their portraits.
But these Victorian ladies would have had nothing to boast about. For these women were convicted as common prostitutes and their pictures are preserved in the archives of Tyne and Wear Museum Service.
The scale of the problem of prostitution in Victorian Newcastle was highlighted by a report by the Temperance Society, a Christian group opposed to alcohol. It was titled: “The Devil’s Mudbath: The Unholy Slave Traffic In Newcastle-Upon- Tyne.”
There were at least 100 brothels in Newcastle when this pamphlet was written in 1883. Ironically, the worst area for brothels was in Erick Street, which was just yards from the Central Police Station.
