The Gaol the Story of Newgate London's Most Notorious Prison

by Kelly Grovier

For over 800 years Newgate was the grimy axle around which British society slowly twisted. This is where such legendary outlaws as Robin Hood and Captain Kidd met their fates, where the rapier-wielding playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe sharpened their quills, and where flamboyant highwaymen like Claude Duval and James Maclaine made legions of women swoon. While London's theatres came and went, the gaol endured as Londons unofficial stage. From the Peasants Revolt to the Great Fire, it was at Newgate that England's greatest dramas unfolded. By piecing together the lives of forgotten figures as well as re-examining the prison's links with more famous individuals, from Dick Whittington to Charles Dickens, this thrilling history goes in search of a ghostly place, erased by time, which has inspired more poems and plays, paintings and novels, than any other structure in British history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, London, True Crime, Research

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Kat Latham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a totally engrossing look into the history of London's most notorious jail, showing how British attitudes toward crime and punishment changed over 800-odd years. There are some absolutely horrific acts described, and at points I had to stop reading. Even so, I finished the book in four days, reading it on every train journey, lunch break and free moment.

It's full of fantastic details about the prison buildings, as well as the prisoners and employees. My only complaint was that some passages felt over-written, and I had to reread them to understand the point the author was making. But when he focuses on the human stories, the work really shines.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading this five years ago and I thought it was good but not brilliant - I expected more - the word pedestrian springs to mind. But that may be a bit harsh.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating and very readable look at the long and murky history of Newgate prison, this features a parade of some of the characters to have haunted its cells and looks at its role in society, the changing attitudes of the English to crime and punishment, and its influence on the popular imagination.

Regardless of the prison's incarnation (it having been rebuilt after being razed to the ground in the Great Fire of London and the 1780 anti-papist Gordon Riots) the picture it paints is an incredibly gruesome one - the prison a hellish labyrinth of dark corridors and overcrowded cells (it housing more than 4 times the inmates intended along with their families, dogs, pigs and poultry!), Press Yards and Ketch's Kitchens (where the executioners would boil the heads of those they'd recently dispatched), sending its stench and noise far across London.

Whatever unlucky sod was sent there (as many were for such paltry crimes as being in debt) was soon a victim of the corruption of the institution - being charged on entering the prison, for each chain they wore, for their food and board, for having chains removed and for leaving prison - if they hadn't already become the victim of Typhus. So riddled with the disease that doctors would refuse to visit, it's thought that Gaol Fever carried off more than 4 times as many as the Executioners did and, considering their fearsome tallies (with one noted to have been hanging, drawing and quartering more than a dozen men a day during the Bloody Assizes), that's a heck of a lot of dead people.

With executions held at Tyburn and (later, outside the prison itself) drawing upwards of tens of thousands of spectators to watch the drama as families fought with Resurrection Men for the bodies of their recently departed loved ones, or the crowd itself attacking the executioner if he'd been particularly brutal, it's small wonder such scenes had a huge an impact on the popular imagination with hundreds of plays, pamphlets and novels written about the characters involved - an early precursor to the criminal biographies I'm addicted to today - reaching its pinnacle with the strutting highwaymen of the 17th & 18th centuries often cast as folk heroes.

Any history fan couldn't be disappointed with the ton of interesting facts contained within, though I'd have liked more information in some cases and less in others.

I also appreciated the criminal slang which headed each chapter, and am totally saving 'gape-seed' up for future use...

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting snapshot of the colourful history of Newgate prison. Grovier explores the evolution of London's criminal underworld and the laws and punishments that were shaped over the decades. Drawing on the stories of some of Newgate's more notorious residents such as Jack Sheppard and Captain Kidd, the book is a fascinating read. At times however it seems the writing verges on the overly dramatic. Phrases such as 'with instinctive precision, like piranhas swarming over a capsized elephant' tend to stick out slightly as unnecessary. I can understand that Grovier wanted to show how dramatic some events were but the stories do tell themselves and are just as interesting and as exciting without theatrical descriptions. Also Grovier appears to attribute two separate hangings with the title of largest crowd to assemble at Tyburn which is either a mistake of wording or, as my cynical brain tend to think, perhaps another addition to Grovier's love of the dramatic without realising he had said it once already. This however does not overly detract from the book. It is still an interesting read and shows how events were influential to many plays, poems and novels over the years.

[Megs Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and easy to read book. If you're looking for a detailed history of Newgate prison this is not for you. If you are interested in the human stories of a selection of prisoners in Newgate or just generally interested in history, crime, and punishment then this is for you. Each chapter is a separate story based on one of the prison's inmate's lives and crimes.
I'm not specifically interested in the history or prisons but found the author's writing style and structure of the book easily digestible and enjoyable.

[Bookwormthings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting social history.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I'm honest I found this a bit disappointing.

It's been sat on my bookcase for the best part of 2 years, if not more, and I've only just gotten round to reading it.

From the synopsis I understood this book to be about the cases of some of the inmates of Newgate. While this is partly true, it goes into a lot of detail about how some of these cases or inmates inspired literary works such as poems, plays and books. As a lover of true crime I'm not really interested in poems etc, I just want to read about some of the more interesting inmates of one of the most famous prisons.

Glad I read it but had to skip a few pages here and there to maintain my interest.

[Claire]

A thoroughly readable, albeit necessarily short, history of Newgate Gaol, which was - as the title suggests - the most notorious of all London's prisons. Grovier takes the reader through the sketchy evidence that is all that remains of Newgate's medieval beginnings, all the way through to its final end in the early 19th century, meeting some of its more notorious inhabitants on the way, and seeing how public and government attitudes towards legal punishment changed over time. A well-written, intelligent piece of popular history

[John Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides good detail on the history of the gaol whilst still being an easy read with an engaging style. Whilst it's in mostly chronological order I did want it to skip around a bit less in some places, but as an overview rather than a reference text I'd thoroughly recommend this book.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book on the history of Newgate.

Writing was a little dry in places, so I did find it a little heavy going.

Regardless of that fact, the book contained much interesting and absorbing information on London's most famous prison.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grovier looks at Newgate Prison, it's history and inmates. Interesting snapshot of social history through crime although not an indepth history.

[Maria Bonham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in parts, but found my attention drifting.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read. The years just fly by in this book. You just want a little more time to find out more.

[Martin Crieff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really grisly history of Newgate and I really enjoyed reading about it. It gets a bit dry at parts, but I found it really interesting overall.

[Amanda Burrows]

Such an interesting read.

[Felicity Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow shortly.

[Katie Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more of an insight into life in the gaol but is more about some of the more notorious inmates and how they got there... Interesting but not really what I was hoping for.