The Cleveland Street scandal occurred in , when a homosexual male brothel and house of assignation on Cleveland Street, London , was discovered by police. The government was accused of covering up the scandal to protect the names of aristocratic and other prominent patrons.
At the time, sexual acts between men were illegal in Britain , and the brothel's clients faced possible prosecution and absolute social rejection if discovered. It was rumoured that Prince Albert Victor , the eldest son of the Prince of Wales and second-in-line to the British throne , had visited the brothel, though this has never been substantiated. Unlike overseas newspapers, the British press never named Albert Victor, but the allegation influenced the handling of the case by the authorities [ 1 ] and has coloured biographers' perceptions of him since.
The police acquired testimonies that Lord Arthur Somerset , an equerry to the Prince of Wales, was a patron. The male prostitutes , who also worked as telegraph messenger boys for the General Post Office , were given light sentences and no clients were prosecuted.
The scandal fuelled the attitude that male homosexuality was an aristocratic vice that corrupted lower-class youths. Such perceptions were still prevalent in when the Marquess of Queensberry accused Oscar Wilde of posing as a sodomite. During the investigation, a fifteen-year-old telegraph boy named Charles Thomas Swinscow was discovered to be in possession of fourteen shillings , equivalent to several weeks of his wages.
At the time, messenger boys were not permitted to carry any personal cash in the course of their duties, to prevent their own money being mixed with that of the customers. Suspecting the boy's involvement in the theft, Constable Hanks brought him in for questioning.
