Spinning House

The Spinning House, also known as the Cambridge House of Correction and Hobson's Bridewell,[1] was a workhouse and prison built in Cambridge in the 1600s[2] and demolished in 1901.[3] In the Victorian era it held local women suspected by Proctors of having a corrupting influence on the male student population, until this power was removed by Act of Parliament in 1893.[4] This removal followed the high-profile case of 17-year-old Daisy Hopkins, who was arrested in 1891 for the crime of "walking with a member of the university"; she sued the Proctor and lost in a trial that severely attacked her moral character[5] but nevertheless prompted public debate about the legitimacy of such arrests.

The former site of the Spinning House is marked by a blue plaque.

References
  1. OSWALD, JANET (Aug 2012). "The Spinning House girls: Cambridge University's distinctive policing of prostitution, 1823-1894". Urban History. 39 (3): 453–470. doi:10.1017/S0963926812000223. ProQuest 1030088218.
  2. Higginbotham, Peter. "The Workhouse in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire".
  3. Heggie, Vanessa (19 October 2012). "Cambridge University's Victorian prison for prostitutes". the Guardian.
  4. Cambridge, The Real (19 January 2012). "Cambridge – house of correction".
  5. Heggie, Vanessa (19 October 2012). "Cambridge University's Victorian prison for prostitutes" – via The Guardian.


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