Image London In-sight – here

Name

Site of Newgate Prison (demolished 1902)

Connection

Many of the prison inmates were transported to Australia.

Location

On the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, site of the present Old Bailey

The Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EH

You can still see one of the remaining Newgate prison walls tucked around the back of the Old Bailey and accessed via Amen Court. Signs indicate that this is a private court but you can glimpse the wall through the arch fronting Warwick Lane.

How to get there

Nearest underground station: St Pauls (Central Line)

Story

Newgate Prison was London’s most notorious prison and has strong Australian connections. It got its name from Newgate – a gate in the Roman London Wall – where it was originally housed. The prison was extended and rebuilt many times and remained in use for over 700 years from 1188 to 1902. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt six years later by Sir Christopher Wren.

Newgate has a long and rich history, serving as a place of incarceration and execution for London’s criminals over its 700-year life. What stories its walls could tell if they remained – well one of them does! (see below). A bell used to be rung to herald an execution. It sits in a case in St Sepulchre-without-Newgate Church across the road from the current Old Bailey. You wouldn’t want to hear these words:

“All you that in the condemned hole do lie, Prepare you, for tomorrow you shall die. Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near, That you before Almighty God will appear. Examine well yourselves, in time repent, That you not to eternal flames be sent, And when St Sepulcher’s bell tomorrow tolls, The Lord above have mercy on your souls.”

Glimpse of the remaining Newgate Prison wall from Warwick Lane  

You can also view the executioner’s bell in St Sepulchre-without-Newgate Church in Giltspur Street – here.

Further information

Wikipedia – here

Historic UK – here

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