I hope someone else managed to catch this fascinating film. Dan Cruickshank, art historian, was arguing that the importance of the sex-industry in the building of what we now know as central London has been grossly underestimated.
The profits of the well-organised, high-class brothels were enormous. They were elegant, sophisticated, frequented by the aristocracy and the gentry and operated openly in the most fashionable areas. Those profits were sunk into the construction of public and private buildings, whole streets of fashionable residences so admired today.
Although the most relaxed attitude to sex appeared to have been earlier in the century, even by the late 1800s high-class prostitutes could aspire to respectability and social prominence with some ease and were often openly feted and admired.The introduction of better, quality-controlled condoms,and the generally good standard of hygiene in the fashionable brothels meant that prostitution was far more acceptable than we would tend to assume.The implication was that even in 1780 a wealthy, well-bred man would not necessarily lose his respectability by visiting a prostitute, or even having one as a mistress.
The film then went on to show how the world of Art had been influenced by sex. Landscape design, architecture etc. were all inspired by the intellectual interest in the sexual roots of Classical culture. Lots of examples of the more obvious monuments to Nature and Fecundity were allowed to fall into ruin by the more fastidious Victorians.