Victorian Ladies of the Night

The Lancet medical journal in 1887 estimated that there were approximately 80,000 prostitutes in London. This is out of a total population of 2,360,000 or 3%. Prostitution or "whoring" had long been regarded as detrimental to the Empire, however it had no special place alongside blasphemy, drunkenness and other public disturbances. It is not until the nineteenth century that it is elevated to a "social evil" of gigantic proportions.