In my second novel, one of my characters spends some time in Newgate Prison. Although the prison was demolished in 1904, it still sends shivers down the spine due to its lasting reputation as one of the most horrible places to be incarcerated in England.
By the time of my novel, 1820, Newgate Gaol had been in use for the incarceration of those who committed crimes in the City of London and Middlesex for almost seven hundred years. It was London’s main prison at the time and housed those remanded in custody while they awaited trial, transportation, or execution.
How Old was Newgate Prison?
Newgate was built in 1188 on the orders of Henry II who needed somewhere to keep felons while they awaited judgment and subsequent punishment, and was constructed around the “new gate” in the old Roman fortified wall around London (the bailey). It had been demolished and rebuilt many times over its 800 years of existence; the last being in 1782 after it was looted and gutted by fire following the Gordon Riots in June 1780.
The new prison was designed to discourage lawbreaking. It was split into two sections, each laid out around a courtyard. There was a “common” area for the poor criminals and a “state” area for more affluent guests who could pay for better treatment and accommodation. Each section was subdivided into debtors and felons. By 1800, there was also a separate wing and courtyard for female prisoners.
Public Domain
The Condemned
Cells were communal, except for the cells where the condemned were held. Prisoners were shackled upon entering the prison and kept in irons for the duration of their stay unless they could pay the Keeper of Newgate for “easement”. Other than that, they were allowed to buy gin, so they were usually drunk most of the time (I don’t blame them), and they were free to gamble and entertain each other with stories of their crimes. In 1858 the interior of the prison was remodelled to adopt a more modern layout that comprised individual cells.
Executions were held at Tyburn, on the edge of Mayfair, until 1783 when they were moved to Newgate. A temporary scaffold was erected against the wall of Newgate Gaol, on the other side of the cells of the condemned, so they did not need to take a long final walk. The more central location also allowed more spectators to attend the public executions. Public executions were discontinued from 1868 and carried out inside a shed in the prison courtyard instead. Between 1790 and 1902, over one thousand executions were carried out at Newgate.
Famous Guests
Newgate Gaol was notorious for its appalling conditions: dank, dirty, squalid, and infested with lice. One philanthropist, Mr Howard, wrote in 1799 (after visiting the condemned cells in 1784):
“In the upper part of each cell is a window, double grated, near 3 feet by 1 1/2. The doors are four inches thick. The strong stone wall is lined all round each cell with planks, studded with broad-headed nails.”
Daniel Defoe, once a guest in Newgate Gaol, described the prison rather differently in his novel, Moll Flanders:
“The hellish noise, the roaring, the swearing, and clamour, the stench and nastiness, and all the dreadful crowd of afflicting things that I saw there, joined together to make the place seem an emblem of hell itself and a kind of entrance into it.”
From British History Online
Newgate Gaol was demolished in 1904 and the site is now occupied by The Old Bailey (the Central Court of England and Wales). The Old Bailey in 1820 was referred to as “the Sessions House” and sat next door to Newgate to allow easy transport of felons to their trial.
Again a good piece of writing and information which I love to read and that I find very interesting