The Dark History of London’s Drug World

2025-03-11

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Travel back to post-WW1 London, when sex, drugs and music was exploding in Soho... causing a national moral panic.The drugs of choice? Cocaine and morphine. Still used by doctors for questionable medicinal reasons (cough syrup anyone?!) but now also taken in nightclubs and opium dens by socialites around Soho.This week, Kate is Betwixt the Sheets with Professor Toby Seddon to talk about the history of drugs, the people who were selling and taking them, and how the government attempted to crack...

Travel back to post-WW1 London, when sex, drugs and music was exploding in Soho... causing a national moral panic.

The drugs of choice? Cocaine and morphine. Still used by doctors for questionable medicinal reasons (cough syrup anyone?!) but now also taken in nightclubs and opium dens by socialites around Soho.

This week, Kate is Betwixt the Sheets with Professor Toby Seddon to talk about the history of drugs, the people who were selling and taking them, and how the government attempted to crack down.

Historic Soho has been brought to life in the new BBC show Dope Girls, which tells the story of Soho when female gangs ran the nightclubs after the First World War. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer now.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

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