london s prisons a history of london’s prisons

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A HISTORY OFLONDON’S PRISONSI t will probably come as no surprise for the reader to learnthat London has contained more prisons than any otherEnglish city. It has, after all for centuries, been the seat ofgovernment and the largest city in the land. In addition to givinghistorical information concerning London’s various penal institutions,I have also endeavoured to give an insight to some of theindividuals who found themselves wrapped up within the complexitiesand intricacies of English law, through the centuries, since the reignof William the Conqueror. In general terms I have covered the areawhich we today know as London, including, the City of London, theCity of Westminster, parts of the County of Middlesex and the areaon the south bank of the River Thames, the County of Surrey; for allof which London’s prisons were built and grew to serve.In the Middle Ages, judicial power was vested not only in theking’s authority but also extended to the bishops and lords. Moreoften than not each had his own personal place of detention withina palace or castle. In London, however, these powers extended toelected officials who administered their own justice in virtually allcases excepting those involving the gravest of treasons. For both thecommon and general populace some degree of law and order wasestablished during the reign of Edward l (1272–1307) when hismajesty instituted the watch, to patrol the streets at night and keepthe peace.The highest in the land were protected by their own retainers whoin turn were offered some degree of security in varying degrees downthe ranks of the hierarchical structure that existed then; and until atleast the 1920s. The watch gradually expanded to safeguard London’sinterests but it was not until Charles II’s reign (1660–85) that thisforce had a considerable impact on the stability of day-to-day life forthe ordinary citizens of London, as well as the highly born. Watchmentook on a more significant role and began to wear a distinctiveuniform of greatcoats and leather helmets, they carried lanterns and7were protected by bludgeons; they also carried rattles to use in alarmsituations. The watch, fortified by local constables, remained London’sonly major contribution to the protection of the man-in-the-streetuntil the Metropolitan Police Force was established in 1829.During early times, London had two sheriffs. A Sheriff or ‘ShireReeve’ was a county justice, in effect the local representative of theking’s law. In 1132, it was granted that London should have twosheriffs, one for London and one for Middlesex, although both postswere in fact held within the City of London itself. The office of sheriffremains important to this day and in London predates that of mayor,which did not become part of London’s political and judicial structureuntil 1192.Up until well into the nineteenth century, with few exceptions,prisons were not generally intended to hold people for extendedperiods of time (except in the case of debtors, until 1869). Manycriminals were imprisoned whilst awaiting their trials and if foundguilty, were generally hanged, shortly afterwards, often for relativelyminor offences. Indeed, up until the early years of Victoria’s reign(1837–1901) there were no fewer the 204 capital offences. During theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries some prisoners were fortunate,being spared the noose and transported to the colonies instead. Therewere many debtors incarcerated within several of London’s prisonsalong with their families, many children being born and raised there.In other European countries imprisonment for debt was limited toone year, but in England debtors were imprisoned until their creditorswere satisfied. When the Fleet Prison closed in 1842, some debtorshad been imprisoned there for as many as thirty years. Prior to theBankruptcy Act of 1869 which abolished debtors’ prisons, bo