Millbay is being regenerated, sex work is making use of new technology and lockdown woes have all had an effect on the oldest profession. We have more newsletters. Read more: Police Slang: the codewords and phrases officers don't want you to know. The First World War saw British soldiers handed pamphlets warning them of the risks of venereal disease if they chose to partake of ladies of the night, although historians have noted that the pitiful pay of British infantry soldiers β around 10 francs a week - meant that even the cheapest French prostitutes β who charged two to three Francs a session β were an unaffordable luxury.
Before the First World War, prostitutes had been allowed to solicit openly in Britain, but only in was it made a crime, under the Defence of the Realm Act, for them to approach men in uniform. In , the government attempted further regulation, forbidding women with VD from having sexual intercourse with any soldier and giving the police powers to medically examine suspected prostitutes. Bumboats were small vessels that brought fresh vegetables, supplies and, most notoriously, prostitutes and drink to the warships.
In port, most ships' captains allowed prostitutes onboard, and the men were in any case already issued with large quantities of drink - the standard allowance was a gallon of beer a man per day. However, prostitutes were not restricted to uniformed men and as such laws have been changed over the years to similarly target the civilian punters. The Sexual Offences Act included sections making brothel-keeping an offence. The film, which can be viewed the BFI website here , includes not just folks enjoying a striptease act but also an interview with a young prostitute who explains how she came to find herself on Millbay Road, how much she charges and the kind of men she meets.
As such, men became more the target and the Sexual Offences Act created the two new offences of kerb crawling and persistently soliciting women for the purposes of prostitution. The man was cautioned, the woman arrested and charged. Later that same month Plymouth Herald quoted Sgt Steve Hopper, of the St Peter's ward team, who said: "We are providing high-profile policing that discourages the problem of vice.
We never aim to drive the girls off the streets. It is a matter of reducing street prostitution by providing increased policing, a safe environment for the girls and a controlled environment for people living in the area. Shortly before the end of police revealed that some of the estimated prostitutes who worked the district had claimed that some girls as young as 14 were selling their bodies for sex β to make extra cash for Christmas.
