Pentonville Prison

The Pentonville Prison (HM Prison Pentonville) was established in Pentonville in North London in 1842 . The design was influenced by the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia .

View of the prison in a contemporary engraving

history

London's first modern prison, Millbank Prison , opened in 1816. It had separate cells for 860 prisoners and proved to be satisfactory in its function. Thus it served as a model for prisons, which were required for the increased number of prisoners after the abolition of the death penalty for many crimes. Furthermore, fewer prisoners were deported , which further increased the number of those to be arrested.

Construction began on April 10, 1840, at a cost of £ 84,186  , 12  shillings and 2  pence . Five cell tracts ran out from a central building in a star shape, so prison guards could see all five tracts from one central point.

Pentonville was built for 520 prisoners serving prison terms or awaiting deportation, with one cell for each prisoner. These cells were nearly 4 meters (13  feet ) long, about 2 meters (7 feet) wide, and 2.70 meters (9 feet) high. The conditions of detention were much better and healthier than in the older prisons in London, such as Newgate Prison . The prisoners were obliged to work, such as weaving or plucking coconut fibers for the rope-making . The cost of one prisoner was about 15 shillings a week.

Prisoners sentenced to death were not incarcerated in Pentonville until Newgate Prison was closed in 1902. From that year on, executions in north London were carried out here. Additional cells were added and an execution building was added to accommodate the gallows from Newport. The last execution took place on July 6, 1961. Edwin Bush , 21 , was hanged for murder.

Pentonville became the model for British prisons, with another 54 built to the same design over the next six years. More followed throughout the British Empire . Today the prison serves as a remand prison as well as for prisoners serving short sentences or starting longer sentences. On January 31, 2006, 1,177 adult males were incarcerated here.

• Pentonville Prison in 1843
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  Inside a cell

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  Large central hall

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  Layout

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  Prison church

Famous prisoners

• Oscar Wilde was incarcerated here in 1895 before being transferred to Wandsworth or Reading.
• The Irish revolutionary Roger Casement was hanged here on August 3, 1916 .
• Hawley Crippen (1862-1910), first law enforcement officer to be arrested using wireless communication. He was found guilty in a controversial trial and hanged in 1910.
• Udham Singh , shot and killed Sir Michael O'Dwyer , who was governor of Punjab during the Amritsar massacre , in 1940 . Singh was imprisoned in Pentonville and hanged there in 1940.
• The Stranglers ' singer Hugh Cornwell was incarcerated here in 1980 for drug possession.
• Actor John Alford was jailed for six weeks in 1999 after selling drugs to a reporter.
• Pete Doherty stayed here for four nights in February 2005 after failing to pay a deposit.
• Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in prison here on January 16, 2009 for handcuffing and holding a call boy in his apartment.

See also

• List of executed leaders of the Easter Rising

literature

• The model prison of Pentonville . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 5 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig July 29, 1843, p. 67-70 ( Wikisource ).

Web links

Commons : Pentonville Prison  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

• victorian history of Pentonville
• More information about the prison

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 41.7 "  N , 0 ° 6 ′ 59.5"  W.