Caroline Hodgson

Caroline Hodgson (c. 1851 – 11 July 1908), also known as Madame Brussels, was a well-known brothel proprietor and local identity of the Little Lon district in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, during the late 19th century.

[2] She married the well connected Studholme George Hodgson in London on 18 February 1871 and the couple immediately migrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne on the ship Melmerby on 24 June 1871.

When her husband became ill with tuberculosis in late 1892, Hodgson arranged for him to be nursed in at "Gnarwin", a property she owned on Beaconsfield Parade, St Kilda.

Hodgson's establishment of brothels in the Little Lon district, suggests she received financial backing from "friends in high places", a charge also made by Melbourne's Truth newspaper during their long campaign against her.

Madame Brussels was 'used as a political football in 1906' and, the following year, was forced to close her businesses after the introduction of the Police Offences Act and increased efforts by the government to curtail prostitution.

[12] In his 1891 pamphlet The War between Heaven and Hell, religious crusader Henry Varley singled out Madame Brussels for particular scorn, describing her as an "accursed procuress", who was protected by the city's magistrates.

As Leanne Robinson notes, although Gillott "freely acknowledged his role as Caroline's mortgagee, he claimed ignorance as to the nature of [her] business – despite the fact that, as a parliamentarian, he'd been instrumental in framing legislation against gambling and licensing and had chaired public meetings on the suppression of vice.

In April 1907, after appearing in court charged under new laws with "owing and operating a disorderly house", the ailing Caroline Hodgson closed her brothels in Lonsdale Street.