Newgate Gaol

Newgate Gaol

At the south-west corner of Newgate Street, at its junction with Old Bailey; in Farringdon Wards Within and Without (O.S. 1880).

At first merely a prison over the Gate of Newgate, as at Ludgate.

In 1241 Jews to be kept prisoners in Newgate.

Mentioned 1278, Thomes the Clerk imprisoned in Newgate (Cal. L. Bk. B. p. 274).

Gaol to be pulled down and rebuilt, 1 H. VI. (Cal. L. Bk. K. p. 19).

Water brought to the prison 1432 (5. 17).

City Gaol for malefactors and also for the County of Middlesex, a large prison and very strong (Strype, Ed. 1720, I. iii. 194). Rebuilt 1770–83. Archt., George Dance. Improvements introduced 1838.

Pulled down 1902 and Central Criminal Court (q.v.) erected on the site; opened 1905.

Newgate-Prison, Old-Bailey,—at the N. end of it, adjoining Newgate-st.

Newgate, the Prison of, is situated at the corner of Newgate-street, and the Old Bailey, and derives its name from the ancient city gate so called, which stood across Newgate-street, between Aldersgate and Ludgate. This ancient gate is supposed to have been so called, because it was erected in the reign of Henry I., several hundred years after the construction of the four original city gates. It is, however, so called in ancient records, from which it appears that it was a common gaol for felons, as early as 1218, and that so lately as 1457, Newgate, and not the Tower, was the prison for the nobility and great officers of state. Being much damaged by the fire of London, it was repaired and beautified by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1672. In one of the niches was a figure, representing Liberty with the word Libertas inscribed upon her cap and with a cat at her feet, in allusion to the story of Sir Richard Whittington, who bequeathed a sufficient sum to rebuild this gate, which was satisfactorily done by his executors in 1423.

After the taking down of the city gates, the corporation determined on erecting a new prison, and designs for the present building were prepared by the younger Mr. Dance; and the first stone was laid on the 23d of May, 1770, by the Lord Mayor (Alderman Beckford), who went in state, attended by the sheriffs and several of the aldermen. This was the last public transaction of Mr. Beckford, who died of a rheumatic fever, on the 21st of June following. In June, 1780, the riots known by the name of Lord George Gordon's, or the "no popery" riots, lasted, to the eternal disgrace of the City magistracy of that day, for upwards of a week, and the new prison of Newgate was burned by the drunken incendiaries of the day. It was speedily repaired, and became the city and county prison. In 1783, the execution of criminals that had previously taken place at Tyburn, was removed by the proper authorities to the present spot, in front of this prison. The first execution too, place on the 9th of December of that year.

Newgate is now the general felon's prison for the City of London and the County of Middlesex. In the north-east corner of the building, or that which is next Newgate-street, is the portion appropriated to those miserable criminals who are under sentence of death. The prison is under good management, but it is too limited in its space for its purposes, and, perhaps, if another felon's prison was erected for the county, and the interior of this newly arranged for the city, it might be sufficient.

It is under the management of a special committee of the court of aldermen, and of a general committee, as to the expenses, consisting of the lord mayor, all the aldermen, the chairman of the committees of City Lands, Thames Navigation, Coal and Corn, and general purposes, together with one common-councilman for each ward; Mr. John Wontner, Keeper; the Rev. Horace S. Cotton, D.D., Ordinary.

Newgate (Prison), in the Old Bailey, a prison originally for felons and debtors, but after 1815 (when Whitecross Street Prison was built) for felons only. It is now condemned, and ordinarily empty; but it is still used as the gaol for the confinement of prisoners from the metropolitan counties preparatory to their trial at the Central Criminal Court adjoining. It took its name from the neighbouring Newgate, which, from the 12th century, had been used as a public prison. [See Newgate.] From the period when Newgate was first employed for the purposes of a prison till the accession of Charles II. in 1660, it would appear to have been sufficiently large for all the necessities of the City and shire. No attempt was made to enlarge it when the gate was rebuilt in 1672, from which period till the date of the present structure (1780) it was wholly unfit for the purposes of a City and county prison. Badly ventilated, ill supplied with water, and crowded as it was throughout the year, Newgate was seldom free from disease. Mr. Akerman, one of the keepers of the old prison, stated, in his evidence before the House of Commons in 1770, that, independently of the mortality among the prisoners, nearly two sets of servants had died of the gaol distemper since he had been in office, adding, that he remembered "when two of the Judges, the Lord Mayor, and several of the jury, and others, to the number of sixty persons and upwards," died in the spring of 1750 of the gaol distemper communicated from Newgate to the Sessions House adjoining.

The present prison was designed by George Dance, the younger, and the first stone laid by Alderman Beckford on May 31, 1770. The works advanced but slowly, for in 1780, when the old prison was burnt to the ground in the Gordon riots of that year, the new prison was only in part completed. More rapid progress was made in consequence of this event, and on December 9, 1783, the first execution took place before its walls. This was the first execution at Newgate, the last at Tyburn occurring on the 7th of the preceding month. Old Newgate was divided into four sides—the master's side, the cabin side (so called from the cabin bedsteads there), the common side, and the women's side. The most celebrated part of the whole structure was called the press-yard, in which the hard measure of the law (peine forte et dure) was inflicted on persons charged with felony, who, with a view to save their property, refused to plead at the bar. The punishment (pressure continued to death) was abolished by the statute 12 George III. c. 20 (1772), but a part of the present Newgate still retains the name of the yard of the old prison in which this cruel torture was inflicted. A noted case was that of Major Strangeways, who was indicted for the murder of John Fussell, and refusing to plead was ordered the peine forte et dure. He suffered in the press-yard of Newgate, dying in eight minutes, many of the spectators casting stones on him in order to hasten his death. In 1721 two highwaymen, Spiggot and Cross, taken at the Black Horse Inn, in the Broad Way, Westminster, refused to plead, with a view to save their property for their relations. When Cross was being laid down his courage gave way and he begged to be allowed to plead "not guilty"; but Spiggot persisted, and was laid on his back, with his legs and hands extended at full length, and weights placed on his body. When 4 cwt. had been put upon his breast he also begged to plead "not guilty." In old Newgate Anne Ascu, the martyr, Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, Muggleton, founder of the sect named after him, Ellwood, Milton's friend and amanuensis, and William Lord Russell were confined; here Defoe commenced his Review; and here, in the prison he had emptied and set in flames, Lord George Gordon, the leader of the riots of 1780, died (1793) of the gaol distemper.

Newgate, a common name for all prisons, as homo is a common name for a man or a woman.—Nash's Pierce Penniless, 4to, 1592.

Falstaff. How now, lad! is the wind in that door, i' faith? must we all march?
Bardolph. Yea, two and two, Newgate-fashion.—Shakespeare, First Part of Henry IV., Act iii. Sc 3.

February 24, 1621.—Sir Francis Michell was sent on foot and bareheaded to the Tower, on account of his patent for ale-houses. He is a Justice of Middlesex, and had a salary of £40 a year from Newgate Prison on condition of sending ail his prisoners there.—Cal. State Pap., 1619–1623, p. 225.

Sir Robert Wright, Chief Justice, K.B., who presided at the trial of the Seven Bishops, died here May 1689.

March 23, 1752.—It is shocking to think what a shambles this country is grown! Seventeen were executed this morning, after having murdered the Turnkey on Friday night, and almost forced open Newgate. One is forced to travel, here at noon, as if one was going to battle.—Walpole to Mann, vol. ii. p. 281.

On Wednesday I walked with Dr. Scott [Lord Stowell] to look at Newgate, and found it in ruins, with the fire yet glowing. As I went by, the protestants were plundering the Sessions House at the Old Bailey. There were not, I believe, a hundred; but they did their work at leisure, in full security, without sentinels, without trepidation, as men lawfully employed in full day. Sudi is the cowardice of a commercial place.—Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, June 9, 1780.

October 1794.—I went last night with Sheridan and Lauderdale, during an interval of the trial, to see Horne Tooke in Newgate.—Charles Grey (Earl Grey) to his wife (Life, p. 28).

In front of this prison Bellingham was executed for the murder of Mr. Perceval, the Prime Minister. The condemned prisoner used to walk out of the Debtors' Door—the low doorway nearest Newgate Street—on to the scaflfold. Public executions had become a great scandal, and since 1868 all executions have taken place within the prison walls, officials and representatives of the press alone being present. A black flag is hoisted on the prison at the hour of execution.

By the Prison Act of 1877 the prison was transferred from the jurisdiction of the City of London to that of the Government. In 1884 Major Arthur Griffiths published The Chronicles of Newgate.

Admission to inspect the interior is granted by the Secretary of State for the Home Department.