In Paris, Mrs Goadby was surprised to find the more successful establishments employed prostitutes trained in elocution, deportment, music and conversation. These brothels were not entirely for sex: they were also places where men could spend an afternoon or evening in the relaxed company of entertaining women. The drunkenness, bad language, fighting, abject groping and grimy decor common in English brothels were apparently absent from these venues.
Convinced brothels on the French model would flourish in London, Mrs Goadby acquired a stylish house on Berwick Street (1751) and furnished it in “an elegant style”.
Goadby then recruited “some first-rate fille de joys” and a physician to ensure they remained free from syphilis, consumption and other diseases. Her employees were outfitted in “the most sumptuous finery” and trained in the delicate skill of entertaining men of the upper classes. She pithily referred to her business as ‘the Nunnery’, to its employees as her ‘Nuns’, and to herself as ‘the Abbess’.
In February 1773, the Covent Garden Magazine advertised her business thus:
“Mrs Goadby, that celebrated Abbess, having fitted up an elegant Nunnery in Marlborough Street, is now laying in a stock of Virgins for the ensuing season.”
As might be anticipated, the prices at Mrs Goadby’s ‘nunnery’ were exorbitant – but her clientele was affluent, regular and appreciative so the money rolled in. Mrs Goadby expanded her premises twice and became wealthy enough to purchase a large house in the country, to which she retired around 1780.
Source: Various, inc. Covent Garden Magazine, February 1773. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.