A Brief History of Prostitution in York - Part IX

In the early 1980s, the Conservative government of that time, under Margaret Thatcher, passed a law which made it possible for local councils to choose to legalise prostitution in their towns and cities. Only three places ever actually took up the option to do this - Brentford, Canterbury and York. This low take-up made it easy for John Major's puritan government to repeal the law when he became Prime Minister ten years later.

During the period when it was possible to do so, several legal brothels opened within the centre of York. One of the more successful was The Bonking Whorehouse, situated at the end of Skeldergate, by the river. Although it no longer sells lady-favours, the building still stands, albeit with an incomplete sign:



The brothel would open at five o'clock every afternoon, Monday to Saturday, and would see a succession of local dignitaries and businessmen, as well as ordinary Joes, pass through its big wooden doors every night. Some may just have come along for a chat and a smoke with one of the many beautiful girls. Others may have come for some full on monkey-nookey. Either way, the 'House (as it was known colloquially) would welcome you with open arms (and legs), as long as you were polite and paid in advance.

Although the brothel closed it's doors for the last time to the public in 1995, it reopened as a sex-themed bar/club two years later and operated very profitably until repeated flooding caused permanent closure in 2001. Now the building stands sadly neglected, its glory days many years in the past.