Friday 10 January 2014

Tart Cards



For my new readers - Tart cards were often printed cards (though some of the early ones were handwritten/drawn) 

and placed in London telephone boxes by the working girls advertising their different type of services during the 1980's when a loophole in the law meant they were not, strictly speaking, illegal.

The practice of placing cards was known as carding. It is a particularly English phenomenon specific to London and seaside resort around Brighton and Hove (though they did appear in other towns) For the printers who were prepared to take the risk they represented a very regular and lucrative business.

Sex sells but ironically sex was the one word that was not used on the cards. Hand written, euphemism, double entendres, catch phrases, plain text, rhymes and a specialised vocabulary.

There was a lot of competition so their business cards had to stand out from all the others.  









Hope you enjoyed them. You can view more here and here.

Have a fun weekend.


Ronnie
xx

17 comments:

Cat said...

Hey Ronnie...I had never heard of these before! Some are funny, some are explicit and some you really have to think about. LOL Thanks for sharing.

Blessings...
Cat

Michael M said...

Often looked at but never called. Came close once or twice after a drink though.

Roz said...

Hi Ronnie, I have never heard of these either! Thanks for sharing. Hmm, some interesting ones! LoL

Hugs,
Roz

Anonymous said...

Here in the states, I've never seen anything like that unless at a truck stop restroom. And never like those. ( Call Cindy for a good time). Thank you for sharing.
I'm sure R would not let me call any spanking services, but then I don't have to she keeps me well spanked. They are fun to look at.
archedone

Our Bottoms Burn said...

The card I would like to see is... suppose you were a tart, what would card say, look like?

I can not think of a American equivalent word for tart.
Slut and whore are not the same. Oh well, no phone booths left anymore.

Anonymous said...

Ronnie,

Thank you for sharing.

Hugs,
joey

Hermione said...

Those are so clever! I like the Wait your Turn one.

Hugs,
Hermione

Anonymous said...

Another good reason why the phrase " jolly old England" is so appropriate... so many ways to be happy for spankos. Thanks for sharing
bottoms up
Red

Anastasia Vitsky said...

Loves a hard caning? Ronnie, I didn't know you made tart cards of your own. :D

Though, because I'm from the US, tart card to me sounds like a very small pie. Yum.

Aimless Rambling said...

Very interesting and learned something new. Love it and thanks for sharing.


To me carding always meant getting asked for ID. lol

ronnie said...


Cat - Thank you. Glad you enjoyed them.

Michael - You would have regretted it next morning:) Thanks.

Roz - I like some of the rhyming ones. Thanks.

Archedone - Apparently they had similar (or still do, not sure) in Vegas. Some very creative ones in the book.

OBB - You've seen my card now:) Thanks.

Joey - My pleasure. Thanks for stopping by.

Hermione - The girls had to make their cards stand out. I remember one from the book that just said "I like my job" and a telephone number. I wonder what type of service she was offereing. Thanks.

Red - Jolly olf England - haven't heard that in years. Thanks.

Ana - You found me out:) Thanks.

SG - My pleasure. That's what I always thought it meant.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

DelFonte said...

I remember these cards from days of living in London, especially about Soho. They certainly made phone boxes colourful and distracted from the smell of pee. Now and again they would be taken down, within hours new ones would appear. Thanks for trip down memory lane.

Ami Starsong said...

I remember these so well, Ronnie, but they were definitely placed in phone boxes in other parts of the country as well! Now of course, we get similar entreaties in the Personal Ads at the back of our little local newspaper! Sigh!

Really like the pictures though. I often wonder where you get your ideas from. Maybe you collected these? LOL!

Hugs
Ami

Blondie said...

I have only seem things like this in bathroom stalls and they were usually done by an unhappy boyfriends

MrJ said...

Beautiful collection!

ronnie said...

Ami - I wished I had collected. I bought a book about Tart Cards which was interesting and information so I shared) Thanks.

Blondie - I cam image what some of them were like:) Thanks.

Mr.J - Thank you.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

Renee Rose said...

Wow, and to think... I could get paid for getting spanked! Even better than getting paid for writing about spanking!!

Love the cards!