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CRIME & PUNISHMENT - Route & what to see |
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london-footprints.co.uk |
I first called this walk 'Sites and Remains of some London Prisons' but this seems a more appropriate title as it also includes courthouses and execution sites. There is a companion walk around Southwark. Have you read of prisons such as Bridewell and the Fleet and wondered where they were located? The chances are that you have walked past their sites without realising it. This walk takes in places where you could have found yourself behind bars in the past.
This linear walk is about 1 miles and finishes at Mount Pleasant. Bus 63 goes back to the start. There are plenty of places for refreshments.
Begin at Blackfriars Station
(District & Circle lines or main line)
Use the subway system to exit 8 and walk along New Bridge Street
Site 1 BRIDEWELL on the west
side between Tudor Street and Bride Lane (Bridewell Place)
This was built as a palace for Henry VIII but his son Edward VI
gave it to the City for use as a workhouse and prison for petty
offenders. The name was adopted by other similar institutions.
The present building at No.14, which dates from 1802, has a
plaque and a keystone above the gateway depicting Edward.
Continue to Ludgate Circus and turn right into Ludgate Hill
Site 2 LUDGATE spanned Ludgate
Hill where now stands Ye Olde London pub.
As with other gates in the city wall this was demolished as a
traffic hazard in 1760 having served as a prison from the late 14th
century. There is a plaque on St. Martin-within-Ludgate Church.
Return to Ludgate Circus and turn right along Farringdon Street
Site 3 THE FLEET on the east
side of Farringdon Street between Old Sea Coal Lane & Old
Fleet Lane
The Fleet was the first purpose-built prison and operated from
soon after the Norman Conquest until Victorian times. Until the
1730s it would have been on the banks of the Fleet River.
Right along Fleet Lane to the end
Site 4 CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
(OLD BAILEY)
This replaced the notorious Newgate Prison in 1902. Stones from
the demolished prison were used in its faade and doors and
other fitments are on display in the Museum of London. The public
galleries of the courts are open 10-1 & 2-5 Monday –
Friday (entry restrictions)
Left along Old Bailey and right into Newgate Street
Site 5 NEWGATE stood across
Newgate Street at No. 121/2.
Newgate was originally a gatehouse prison which was rebuilt with
a bequest from Richard Whittington in 1423. It was from here that
Jack Shepherd famously escaped having been chained in a third
floor cell. Following the construction of the new building in the
1770s most of the old prison was demolished, although some
remained on the north side until 1781. There is a plaque on the
Central Criminal Court, which stands on the extended Newgate
site.
Return to the crossroads
Site 6 ST. SEPULCHRE CHURCH
The bells of this church were tolled for an execution at Newgate.
It has on display a handbell rung by the priest who visited
condemned prisoners on the morning of their execution. A tunnel
ran between the church and the prison.
Site 7 THE VIADUCT TAVERN
This Victorian pub uses former cells as storage areas
Go into Giltspur Street
Site 8 GILTSPUR STREET COMPTER
on east side now Merrill Lynch premises (marked with a plaque)
This was a sheriff’s prison designed by George Dance the
Younger in 1791
Continue along this street
Site 9 WEST SMITHFIELD
A place of execution. There are monuments with ‘themed’
ironwork to William Wallace (Scottish Patriot) & the
protestant martyrs of Mary I reign on the walls of St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Go through the Grand Central Avenue of Smithfield Meat Market. Cross Charterhouse Street and bear right along St John Street
Site 10 HICKS HALL was sited in
the middle of the road
Sir Baptist Hicks had a sessions house built at his own expense
in 1612. There was a room where bodies of criminals were
publically dissected. Much decayed, it was demolished in 1782 to
be replaced with the Middlesex Sessions House on Clerkenwell
Green. (Site 12)
Bear left along St John’s Lane. Beyond the gate this becomes St John’s Square which continues across the Clerkenwell Road. Continue through Jerusalem Passage and left into Aylesbury Street
Site 11 CLERKENWELL GREEN
This has been a site of execution with a pound, pillary and Watch
House at one time.
Site 12 OLD MIDDLESEX SESSIONS
HOUSE West end of Clerkenwell Green
Dating from 1779 this was once the largest and busiest court
house in England. It served as courtrooms until the 1920s. Now a
Masonic Centre the basement cells, including a condemned cell,
have become a bar area. It has two ghosts from its past history.
From the Green follow Clerkenwell Close (the Crown pub is on the corner). Go right into Sans Walk and take the passage on the left
Site 13 CLERKENWELL HOUSE OF
DETENTION
The basement areas remained below the former Hugh Myddleton
School, now re-developed as apartments. For a time these were
open to view with displays on prisons and prison life. As a
remand prison it was one of London’s busiest between 1846
and 1878.
Return to and continue along Clerkenwell Close then right into Corporation Row
Site 14 CORPORATION ROW
The Fenian Society, forerunners of the I.R.A. in attempting to
release prisoners blew up several houses in this street. There is
a memorial to the people killed in St James’s Church,
Clerkenwell. The ringleader Michael Barrett was the last person
to be publicly executed outside Newgate Prison in 1868.
Return and follow Northampton
Road to the right past the LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES
These are open to the public for research and contain amongst
other things records of the Middlesex Sessions.
Right into Catherine Griffiths Court continuing through Pine Street then left to road junction
Site 15 MOUNT PLEASANT SORTING
OFFICE (site of COLDBATH FIELDS)
In 1790 the site of medicinal springs was cleared for the
Middlesex House of Correction, opened in 1794. This was later
known as Cold Bath Prison then Clerkenwell Gaol. Its harsh regime
included working a treadmill that did nothing more than turning
some sails. Originally a criminal jail it became a debtors prison
before closing in 1885. The old prison site was transferred to
the Post Office in 1889 and its buildings were gradually
replaced. The last sections were demolished in 1929 for an
extension of the Letter Office.
london-footprints.co.uk 2006