RomanceEverAfter

Historical Romance Column

Newgate Prison

On Threadneedle Street, we saw the Bank of England, also known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. Threadneedle Street is close to the former site of Newgate prison. Newgate was originally built in 1188. The prison has gone through many design and construction changes since that time. Today, it is the Old Bailey which is London’s Central Criminal Court.  On the Sinister Tour, we visited a pub across the street from the Old Bailey and taken underground to an area which was part of the original prison.

My first introduction to Newgate was in Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Shanna has decided in order to prevent marrying a man of her father’s choosing, she will marry one who has been sentenced to death at Newgate. After selecting the man, she visits Newgate to make the deal. Woodiwiss provides vivid details of the difficult living conditions in Newgate and the attitude of the gaoler (British word for jail) in charge of Ruark Beauchamp, the prisoner Shanna will marry. In Petals on the River, also by Kathleen Woodiwiss, the heroine Shemaine is framed and taken to Newgate. She is later taken by ship to the American Colonies and sold as a bond slave.

In Jane Feather’s book Vanity, two highwaymen at Newgate are hanged for their crimes. The prisoners’ friend, Lord Nick, pays to have their bodies delivered to an inn for burial. Lord Nick is told the bodies will be delivered to the inn if the surgeons do not take them first. St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, the oldest hospital in London, used bodies of executed prisoners from Newgate for experimentation and surgical practice. When Lord Nick becomes a prisoner at Newgate, we read more details about Newgate and how a prisoner’s living conditions are improved when a family can afford to pay for it.

London: A Historical Adventure -4>>>