Little Molly House in London

The Love Story: Within in the walls of Mother Clap’s molly house, London’s gay men find love and adventure.At the turn of the 18th century, there weren’t many places for gay men to meet one another in London. At the time, in fact, homosexuality was punishable by execution. Enter Margaret Clap (better known as Mother Clap), an enterprising woman who opened what would become the most famous brothel for gay men in all of London.As the dandies and rough-and-tumbles of London search for love amidst her boudoirs (and pine openly in songs written for the screen by Stephen Sondheim, of course!), Mother does her best to protect her clients and fend off the coppers. Mother Clap was arrested for assisting sodomites after a raid in 1726 and some of the men with her were hanged … but can’t we imagine that at least a few escaped to live happy lives together?