SoWN News Special
- Giles Goddard
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Welcome to your South Bank and Waterloo Neighbours newsletter.
This newsletter contains:
Late-Victorian Child Prostitution & the Brothels of Waterloo with Dr Jane Jordan - Tuesday 17th June 7pm St John's Waterloo
SoWN Forum, Thursday 26 June, 6pm at the Coin Street neighbourhood centre
Late-Victorian Child Prostitution & the Brothels of Waterloo with Dr Jane Jordan
When: Tuesday 17th June 2025
Time: Doors open 6.30pm, talk starts at 7pm
Location: The Forum St John’s Church Waterloo
£10.00
Introduced by SoWN's Chair, Canon Giles Goddard
Tickets: £10.00 Organised by the Waterloo Local History Society
Waterloo was notorious for its prostitution: hotels, common lodging-houses and coffee-houses all serving as covers for brothels. But in the summer of 1885 a new law was passed which threatened the livelihood of brothel keepers. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill in response to a devastating newspaper exposé detailing the extent of child prostitution in London. The new Act raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16, but also introduced more stringent measures against brothels. This illustrated talk focuses on how the 1885 legislation affected Waterloo through the stories of two vicars: an East-End curate who groomed and seduced an under-age girl in a Waterloo coffee house, and Rev Arthur William Jephson, the vicar of St John’s, Waterloo, who led a radical campaign to cleanse the neighbourhood of such brothels
Dr Jane Jordan is a Lambeth Tour Guide and a Trustee of the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery. Jane taught Victorian literature and culture at Kingston University for 20 years. She is the author of Josephine Butler (2001), a biography of the Victorian feminist who campaigned on behalf of prostitutes, and whose investigative reporting contributed to the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885).
The Waterloo Local History Society will precede the talk with a short AGM.
SoWN Forum - Thursday 26 June, 6pm at the Coin Street neighbourhood centre
The next SoWN Forum will be held at the Coin Street neighbourhood centre on Thursday 26 June at 6pm. If you can make it to Coin Street for 5pm, Cait Saunders will take you on a walking tour of the Coin Street estate. Meet at the neighbourhood centre help desk at 5pm, 108 Stanford Street.
The agenda for this Forum includes:
The London and Lambeth Growth Plans - how will they affect South Bank and Waterloo?
SoWN's Neighbourhood Plan 2019 - 2032 - we're half way through - how are we doing and what should we focus on next?
If there's anything you would like to see on the Forum agenda, please let us know.
As always, there will be a drinks reception after the meeting.
The dates for the Forums in 2025 are Thursday 9 October and Thursday 11 December.
