Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies 1788

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Published annually from 1757 to 1795, Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies was a notorious directory of prostitutes working in London at a time when it is claimed one in five women made a living from selling sex. The descriptions for each lady generally include the address she can be found and a description of her attributes along with her expected remuneration. Although usually complimentary some of the descriptions are critical of bad habits or occasionally derisory. The directories were published anonymously, but it is thought that the original lists were written by Samuel Derrick a Dublin born "hack" writer, although they continued after his death in 1769. Only nine editions are known to have survived 1761, 1764, 1773, 1774, 1779, 1788, 1789, 1790 and 1793. The 2017 drama Harlots opens with one of the lead characters returning to a brothel with a copy of the list from which many of the characters were drawn.