Brian Joyce, The Chatham Scandal: A history of Medway's prostitution in the late 19th century (published 1999)
Hardback: £14:99

The title of this book is taken from headlines which appeared in both the Chatham News and Chatham Observer in 1882. The newspapers were reacting to the recent revelation that of all the garrison towns and seaports that were subjected to the Contagious Diseases Acts (the legislation which allowed the government to supervise prostitution in such communities) Chatham had the most public houses that were being used as brothels.

The Chatham Scandal takes you back to a time when prostitution had been legalised and there wasn't a place in England where you could find more brothels. Chatham in the late 1880s was a violent and virtually lawless town, nationally infamous for its harlots, with running street battles between soldiers and marines, and an inadequate police force unable to cope.

Brian Joyce takes a look at the people, the places and the laws of the time. He brings history to life by taking a personal glimpse at the lives of the prostitutes themselves: the kind of women they were, where they came from, how they behaved and the crimes they committed. He shows us what kind of place Chatham was and looks at examples of some of the public houses and private residences which were used as brothels.

The book covers the mid-1860s to the late 1880s -- the only period in history when the government experimented with supervising the oldest profession on earth.

It did this by putting any women suspected of prostitution on a register and forcing them to undergo medical examinations. These measures were enforced by the Contagious Diseases Act to protect servicemen from venereal diseases. Women who refused to comply were  forcibly detained; those found to be diseased could be kept in hospital for up to nine months and subjected to humiliating treatment.

Though obviously not as rampant as it once was, prostitution is still apparent in the Medway Towns, as it is the world over, though readily overlooked.

Medway News
26/3/1999

SIMON WELLS AND ALAN ROOTS

Book gets a handle on sordid scandal

Days of fighting and fornication

In many ways, it was like Dodge City. Rioters poured on to the streets in the evenings and harlots graced each and every pub. The inadequate 12-strong police force was a bad joke.

And where was this vile, lawless town? Why, it was our very own Chatham, circa 1880.

Modern-day councillors strive to put Medway on the map, but the task had already been achieved more than 100 years ago.

Chatham was as nationally infamous for its prostitutes as it was for its running street battles between soldiers and marines. And it could boast more public houses which doubled-up as brothels than anywhere else in the country.

The revelations, and subsequent furore, were labelled "The Chatham Scandal" by the newspapers of the day.

And that is also the title of a new book by former Hundred of Hoo history teacher Brian Joyce, which takes an educated peek under the petticoats of the town as it enjoyed the seamiest phase of its past.

The study, which focuses on the years from the 1860s to the 1890s, is published by Baggins Book Bazaar, in Rochester High Street, and will be launched at the Navy Days event in May.

Mr Joyce (49), of Rainham, discovered much about the town during his research. One fascinating fact is that the area of Chatham/Rochester High Street around Gundulph Road, so favoured by the working girls of today, was also a popular spot for Victorian prostitutes.

And residents were protesting even then. But the High Street was no match in seediness for The Brook where almost every pub was a house of ill-repute.

The sordid situation in the towns was revealed when the Government invoked the Contagious Diseases Act designed to look after the welfare of sailors who may have strayed brothel-bound while in port.

Powers in the Act allowed the authorities to forcibly "examine" any woman suspected to be a harlot. Wards at St. Bart's Hospital were designated for the task and they overflowed as hundreds of women were taken in.

But the Act was not univerally popular attracting criticism that it was humiliating for those involved -- many of whom were completely innocent. It was abandoned in the early 1880s.