In 1889, the British Empire was at its mightiest, and London was the capital of the world.
Society was at its hierarchical zenith, and the class system was deeply entrenched, from Queen Victoria down to the very poorest. In those late Victorian times, sex was rarely openly talked about, and homosexuality was particularly taboo.
So, when a gay brothel was uncovered that summer, operating close to Tottenham Court Road at No.19 Cleveland Street in London's West End, it was shocking. And when it was discovered that teenage telegraph messenger boys from the General Post Office — an illustrious Victorian institution — were servicing the needs of leading members of the aristocracy there, all hell was set to break lose.
And they weren't just any members of the aristocracy — Lord Arthur Somerset, the Prince of Wales's private equerry was a client at the brothel, and it was rumoured that his eldest son and Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, was also a visitor.
As the Establishment has often done in these scenarios, it began to close ranks, the Prince of Wales's fixers putting pressure on the government to close down the police investigation, and to keep it out of the press as much as possible. But it was soon international news. "To Our Corrupt Aristocracy" ran an editorial in Reynolds's News on 1 December 1889. New York World led with "London's Vile Scandal" on 16 January 1890.
Four years earlier, the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 — Section 11 of which was known as the 'Labouchère Amendment' after Henry Labouchère MP who wrote and lobbied for it — originally criminalised homosexuality and was only abolished over 80 years later following the Wolfenden Report. (Ironically, it was Labouchère who, along with another radical journalist, Ernest Parke, did the most to bring the authorities to account over the cover-up, both in print and in Parliament.)
So those who attended the brothel at 19 Cleveland Street and the rent boys themselves faced legal jeopardy. And six years later in 1895, it was the sparks from the Cleveland Street scandal that led directly to the greatest sex scandal of the 19th century: the prosecution and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency. It also set the template for how gay men in Britain were mistreated, until homosexuality was legalised in England and Wales in 1967, Scotland in 1980, and Northern Ireland in 1982. Cleveland Street is where it all began.
I decided to write The Cleveland Street Scandal: How the Establishment Was Almost Brought to Its Knees because it was such an astonishing story and a shameless Establishment cover-up, still relevant today. It shows how a section of society was mistreated; it particularly reveals how the law was unfair, and how the social standing of a person in society dictated whether they were punished or not. But what initially led me into the story was the fact that Inspector Frederick Abberline, who had led the unsuccessful Jack the Ripper investigation in London's East End in the previous year, was put in charge of the case. It was to be his last big case, and he finished his police career frustrated at being hampered by higher powers in his probing of it.
What surprised me most was how late Victorian society, and the levers of power, really worked. And the cast of colourful characters which appeared as I looked into the story — all of whom really existed — was incredible, although in some cases it's hard to believe they were real people. Take Arthur Newton, Lord Arthur Somerset's bent lawyer, whose artfulness was quite something; and George Veck, the brothel keeper's righthand man and a pimp who posed as priest complete with dog collar. Some of the personalities in the story are like something out of an Ealing comedy, although the tragic and deeply unfair way that gay men were treated by society, and how class dictated their fates, balances and sobers that thought.
I managed to uncover many new details about their lives before, during and after the scandal played out and identify several clients of the brothel for the first time, as well as shine further light on the murky machinations of the cover-up going on behind the scenes. Researching and writing the book took me on an unforgettable journey, and I hope that readers can also go on that journey.
The Cleveland Street Scandal: How the Victorian Establishment was Almost Brought to its Knees, by Neil Root, published by The History Press.
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