Lost London by Richard Guard

Author:Richard Guard [Guard, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781843178965
Publisher: Michael O' Mara Books

King’s Bench Prison

Borough

THIS PRISON STOOD ON THE SOUTH-WEST CORNER of Blackman Street and Borough High Street from the time of Richard II (1377–99).

Originally used to incarcerate those convicted at the travelling court of King’s Bench, it became the debtors’ prison for South London in the 1600s. In 1633 it held nearly 400 inmates with a collective debt of £900,000. Known for its cruelty, extortion, promiscuity and drunkenness, it was closed and moved to new premises in 1758.

The new prison, built in St George’s Fields, Southwark, had 224 rooms (including eight state apartments) and a high surrounding wall. The regime there was considerably more relaxed, if one had the money to afford it. There were two pubs, a coffee house, thirty gin shops (selling 120 gallons of the spirit a week) and stalls offering meat, vegetables and pretty much anything else that might be wanted. It was described in 1828 as ‘the most desirable place of incarceration in London’. Author Tobias Smollett wrote that the prison:

... appears like a neat little regular town, consisting of one street, surrounded by a very high wall, including an open piece of ground, which may be termed a garden, where the prisoners take the air, and amuse themselves with a variety of diversions. There are butchers’ stands, chandlers’ shops, a surgery, a tap-house, well frequented, and a public kitchen, in which provisions are dressed for all the prisoners gratis, at the expense of the publican.

A freedom of sorts could be purchased on a daily or yearly basis, on a promise to the governor not to travel outside of ‘the rules’ – a-three-mile area surrounding the prison. Income from ‘the rules’ in the early part of the 19th century was earning the governor £2823 each year, to say nothing of his slice of the beer sales – almost another £1000.

One of the prison’s darkest days occurred when the radical MP John Wilkes was imprisoned here after his trial for seditious libel on 10 May 1768. His supporters massed at the gates, crying ‘no justice, no peace’. Troops opened fire, killing seven and wounding fifteen in what became known as the St George’s Fields Massacre. Imprisonment for debt was abolished in 1869 and afterwards King’s Bench became a military prison until it was demolished in 1880.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.