The Brothels of Little Lon

This material is reproduced courtesy of Mr John Leckey, from his essay presented to the course ‘Making Melbourne Marvellous’ within the University of Melbourne’s Department of History in 1995.

The area bounded by Little Lonsdale, Spring, Lonsdale and Exhibition Streets was once notorious as the site of many of Melbournes brothels, opium dens and less respectable pubs. It was the focus of much concern from reformers, educators and missionaries. This part of the Web site gives more details about brothels in the area.
1. Madame Brussels and her establishments
2. Madame Brussels and the forces of morality
3. Respectable men, politicians and the brothel industry
4. Brothels and alcohol
5. Brothel owners and their wealth

Madame Brussels and her establishments

Apart from Mother Fraser, who entertained the Duke of Edinburgh in her luxurious residence in Stephen Street (‘round the corner from Lonsdale’), the best known of the madams was Madame Brussels, who even listed her main establishment at 32 and 34 Lonsdale Street as a brothel in the directory. No less than eight of the brothels in the area were controlled by her at some stage. Most were high class, but others like the one at 4 Casselden Place were of a lower status. Sergeant Dalton of the Police said she has two splendid houses in [Lonsdale] Street that cost her 1,300 pounds and those two houses are her own property’, plus two cottages and another nearby house let out for prostitution. She received from them weekly ‘something enormous: 3 or 4 pounds’. He also said that no other brothels were as extensive as Madame Brussels’. (Report on the Bill for the Prevention of Contagious Diseases, 16 October 1878, Q.461)

Madame Brussels was born Caroline Baum in Potsdam, Germany in 1851 and was ‘a sweetheart of the Duke of Edinburgh in Melbourne in 1867’.(Meudell, G. The Pleasant Career of a Spendthrift. London, 1920s). Her first husband was an English remittance man called Hodgson, who was said to have had aristocratic connections and to be descended from the famous leader of the ‘Hodgson Horse’ unit, active during the Indian Mutiny. After Hodgson died Madame Brussels inserted In Memoriam notices in daily newspapers for some years, which included her former husband's pedigree - perhaps she was hoping to achieve some reflected respectability in this way. Madame Brussels was always well dressed, drove in a smart carriage, and educated her daughter at a respectable private school while they resided at 39 Beaconsfield Parade, St. Kilda. (See Truth, 8 December 1906, p.5, for personal details about Madame Brussels.)

"Latrobe newspaper collection, State Library of Victoria."

Then known as Mrs Hodgson, in 1879 Madame Brussels opened her first brothel in the study area by leasing 8 Lonsdale Street. She was 28 years old. Business must have been good, as in the following year she was in a position to purchase 32 Lonsdale Street, a brick house having seven rooms. She bought the adjoining six-room house at No 34 in 1889 from Samuel Nathan, having been his tenant for some years. She connected the houses and retained ownership of both until her death in July 1908.

She married engineer and fellow German Jacob Pohl at St Patrick's Cathedral on 10 April 1895; she was 44, he was 27. They lived at 32 Lonsdale Street for 10 months before travelling to Germany for a holiday, but Pohl soon deserted her and went to South Africa. She returned and two or three years later he called on her and they resumed a marital relationship at his East Melbourne apartment, finally separating in August 1899. He never sent her money. According to Truth, Jacob was pleased when the divorce papers were served, saying ‘she was too old for me’. (Truth, 8 December 1906, p.5.) There were no children of this marriage.

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