Talk:Cottaging

"kite flying"
I dont know where this "kite flying" idea has come from, Ive never heard of it. Any proof? OMG u have never heard of this :O lol well not many people have but still OMG
 * Just out of curiosity ... what is it? -- Banj e  b oi   06:02, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

entrapment
this article mentions problems with entrapment, and its not entirely accurate. Entrapment laws for all intents and purposes do not exist in the US. A cop can ask you "would you like to buy pot?" or "would you like to have sex in public" and that is considered fine. A officer can engage in any activity that a 'normal' person would do in the course of duty. To prove entrapment, you would have to prove you were a person that would never have done it if it wasnt mentioned, and that is a very hard thing to prove. -matt —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.113.146.30 (talk) 17:45, 15 January 2007 (UTC).

1729
Cottaging in the United Kingdom has been noted as early as 1729.

As this sentence stands I can't make out whether the practice of cottaging has been noted as early as 1729, or whether the use of the term is dated to at least this early. Spidrak
 * Unlikely to mean as early as 1729 but would make a fascinating read if true. -- Banj e  b oi   06:03, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I do not think public lavatories in the modern sense even existed in the 1720s, so can't see how cottaging could have done.
 * Nuttyskin (talk) 15:50, 15 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Public urinals certainly did so the concept is roughly the same even if there was no formal name or codes for conduct. -- Banj e  b oi   07:56, 20 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I am researching the history of the Adelphi development of 1786 by the Adam brothers in London. Georgian houses on a labyrinth of vaults. On the riverside, under the Adelphi Terrace, were the 'Adelphi Cottages', and in the vaults under them were a urinal. I have just learned that this was a notorious homosexual pick up place in Georgian and Victorian times (the proximity of a warren of pitch black open vaults, and perhaps the Cottages themselves, of course facilitating things). I can't help wondering if the conjunction of 'Adelphi Cottages' and a notorious cottaging spot may be significant.

89.168.81.222 (talk) 04:23, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

location of image
The image caption has recently been changed, moving the location from Greenwich Park to Pond Square. Since the two locations are not easily confused, I'm concerned this may be erroneous but am reluctant to revert without evidence. Anyone know for sure? Barnabypage 08:55, 31 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes - I'm the photographer who initially uploaded it. While I don't know the name of the park, it was just a few blocks north of Highgate Cemetery.  MattHucke(t) 19:36, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Please ensure you add that information to the image file as well for future editors. -- Banj e  b oi   06:04, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

"Putting the curtains up"
The idea of putting toilet paper over a lock to prevent authorities looking through is both bizarre and implausible, and I've never come accross the term in the gay community.

I don't think I've ever been in a cubicle which even had a keyhole. If the term refers to the main toilet room then "the authorities" are far more likely to simply walk in than peep through a key hole.

The idea of standing in a carrier bag also sounds more like a strange anecdote than common practice. 144.124.16.33 07:38, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

I have personally seen short lengths of toilet paper draped over the door of an occupied toilet stall. Since the TP could not possibly have afforded any privacy from peeping authorities I assumed (but made no attempt to verify!) that the occupant had placed the paper there as a "flag" to announce that he was seeking sexual activity.Throbert McGee 04:23, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Standing in carrier bags (shopping bags for the yanks) did and does happen. There's even use of the ploy in some movie where two people are hiding in a stall but I don't remeber what film(s). Benji boi 13:16, 18 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The carrier bags I can attest to (the name of the film escapes me). The "toilet paper curtains" I have never heard of. But, a possible related use, is when peepholes (sometimes even gloryholes) are drilled between cubicles, which are then blocked up with toilet paper when not in use, or when the occupant of one or more of the cubicles does not wish to be observed.
 * Nuttyskin (talk) 15:54, 15 September 2009 (UTC)


 * The movie Pecker by John Waters employs this; Pecker (Edward Furlong) follows his girlfriend (Christina Ricci) into a voting booth. In order to hide, he stands in her shopping bags (the nice paper ones, not the crappy plastic supermarket ones, as those wouldn't hide anything!); they then proceed to have sex, which shakes the booth & they are found out.


 * I'm sure there must be more instances in cinema, but this is the one I'm aware of. Kailey elise (talk) 17:01, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Cottaging
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Cottaging's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Guardian": From Faggot (slang): Gettysburg Times (PA), Aug 30, 1969: Order Health Data on Fag Advertising From Stedman Pearson:  From Five Star: "Let's Go Round Again" by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 26 June 2008</li> </ul>

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 23:08, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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Chopin and the London urinals
Chopin wrote in one of his letters about his experience with London urinals. Obviously a quite exceptional passage in his correspondence, which is shown by the many contemporary publications who expicitly pointed that passage out. The Guardian concluded that Chopin was describing cottaging. I put it into the list in the article, but it was swiftly deleted by a user without reason. What does the wiki-communitiy think about it?

That was my contribution:

1837: The famous polish composer Frédéric Chopin is supposed to have practiced cottaging during his icognito stay under the name of „Mr. Fritz“ in London in July 1837. In a letter from London to Julian Fontana in Paris he then wrote: „it amuses me most worthily. You can tell Jaś that one can amuse oneself here with cautious ease - when one is here for a short time. Huge things!! - Great urinals. And yet, there is nowhere to have a good tinkle. [...] everything washed and yet as black as a nobleman‘s a..!!!“

And that‘s the original passage from Chopin’s letter (July 1837 to Julian Fontana) in polish:

[…] że mnie to bardzo szanownie bawi, możesz Jasiowi powiedzieć, że się tu ostrożnie łatwo bawić – kiedy się na krótko. – Ogromne rzeczy!! – Wielkie urynały. – Nie ma się mimo to gdzie wypsipsiać. […] wszystko umyte a czarne jak szlachecka d...!!! – Całuję Cię w twarz

--Chip-chip-2020 (talk) 09:09, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

"'There are such tremendous things! Huge urinals, but all the same nowhere to have a proper p[ee]! As for the English women, the horses, the palaces, the carriages, the wealth, the splendour, the space, the trees -- everything from soap to razors -- it's all extraordinary, all uniform, all very proper, all well-washed BUT as black as a gentleman's bottom!'"
 * the above editor gives a version of Chopin's letter speciously edited so as to support his contention. The true full text of the section of the letter actually reads (in translation):

In other words, Chopin is impressed by London - even the urinals are so huge that one can't find where to piss - and despite the English mania for cleanliness, smoke in the city makes everything black. There is not a single piece of evidence that Chopin ever indulged in cottaging, or indeed, that he was a practising homosexual. The reference given by the editor to Alan Walker's biography of Choipn makes no reference to cottaging or sexuality, and is thus completely inappropriate. ---User talk:Smerus|talk]]) 14:16, 16 January 2021 (UTC)