This is an incredibly long shot, but....

[Guynemer]

Why not both? Don't limit yourself.

[BlackCat]

Just blame it on that Laz guy

[Elok]

I'm actually quite glad he changed his name; I see "Laz" and instantly think of my kid now.

[The Mad Monk]

You named your kid after Laz???

[Felch]

You named your kid Bugs ****ing Bunny?

[Elok]

You named your kid after Laz???

After him? Not really. He's named for a much older Lazarus, mostly because I like this song:



I think our church does it better, but then we have an awesome choir. Oh, and also there weren't many boys' names my wife and I agreed on. She refused to give him any common name and a lot of the uncommon ones are seriously goofy. If you think the name Lazarus is seriously goofy, you probably don't want to know about the ones I rejected. His middle name is Maximus, after Maximus the Confessor and also so he can moonlight as a gladiator without resorting to a stage name.

[molly bloom]

But admit it, you thought it'd be molly bloom.

I'm terribly sorry, but the Southwark geese and the Bishop of Winchester aren't currently occupying any of my mental space. That's been reserved for a project I'm working on in conjunction with the British Museum.

[molly bloom]

Bugs- having had hardly any time at all yesterday evening to peruse my bookshelves and the nooks, crannies and coigns of my living quarters, I inconveniently woke up at 1.30 a.m. and so finished off reading 'Empires Of The Sea' which I'd bought on Monday and then unable to get back to sleep (try doing that after his account of Lepanto and the siege of Famagusta)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/may/10/history

I rummaged a while and found Roy Porter's 'London: A Social History' which has a small section on the Southwark brothels but it's mostly to do with the late Mediaeval/Tudor period- although interestingly enough the brothels were located near the inns which specialized in the pilgrim trade.

I also found my 'Discovering London' box set which was produced in 1968 in conjunction with a London Weekend Television series -and the guide to Mediaeval London by Kenneth Derwent, although lacking anything specifically on the Southwark bawdy houses covers (in a slender volume) topics such as the Jewish quarter, the livery companies, water supply, language and the Eleanor crosses, and is well worth reading in its own right.

I'd also recommend 'The Londoner's Almanac' by Russell Ash, because it's fun and I'd imagine you'd appreciate its quirkiness, and the same goes for a book produced by Time Out called (I think- a friend borrowed my copy years ago, then went to live in New York. Have I seen the book again ? No...) 'Naked London'.

I seem to recall Reay Tannahill's 'Sex In History' mentioning the brothels, but I may be optimistically misremembering.

Have you tried the 'History Today' website ? I didn't have time to plough through my back issues last night or in the wee small hours, but if I have time at the weekend I'll see what I can find.

Happy groping.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I rummaged a while and found Roy Porter's 'London: A Social History' which has a small section on the Southwark brothels but it's mostly to do with the late Mediaeval/Tudor period- although interestingly enough the brothels were located near the inns which specialized in the pilgrim trade.

Nice one. I'd been focussing on 13th/14th-century histories, but I think I'll cast the net wider and see what I can pick up from Tudor-era works.

[molly bloom]

Nice one.

The product of insomnia... 'Bawds & Lodgings: A History Of The London Bankside Brothels' by E.J. Burford. Roy Porter advises use with caution...

http://www.alibris.co.uk/search/books/isbn/9780720601442

And no, Imran, I didn't use Google. Still, propagating secondhand inaccurate b*tchy remarks gives you something to repent about in the post-Paschal period, doesn't it ?