The Girl's Business Cards

You may remember me finding and buying this book

and sharing some of the business cards the working girls used to put in London red telephone boxes advertising their different services. Well I found more on my travels. Hope you enjoy them.

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

and were placed in London telephone boxes by the girls advertising all 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 was 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. 

You can view more of the cards from the book here and here.

Have a fun weekend.

Ronnie
xx