Newgate Prison was the longest-used prison in London, open from 1188 to 1902. It stood just inside the City of London, at the site of one of the gates in the old Roman wall.
The original prison at Newgate was built in 1188, in accordance with Henry II's Assize of Clarendon, which required the construction of prisons. It was progressively enlarged and developed over the next few centuries by absorbing parts of the turrets and dungeons from the city walls, but remained an upleasant and dangerous place. In one year in the 15th century 22 inmates died from "gaol fever, and in 1419 it became so insanitary that the City authorities temporarily closed the prison. In 1422, Lord Mayor of London Dick Whittington renovated the site, adding a new chapel, central hall, and accommodation for up to 300 prisoners.
The prison was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and rebuilt in 1672 by Christopher Wren. Another rebuilding started in 1770 was incomplete when Newgate was badly damaged during the Gordon Riots in 1780; Lord George Gordon, the instigator of the Riots, was himself imprisoned in Newgate afterwards. George Dance took over as architect and the new prison was completed in 1782. It had two sections - a Common area for poor prisoners and a State area for those who could afford more comfortable accommodation. Prisoners ranged from debtors to felons. Newgate was notorious for the overcrowded and unhealthy conditions in which they were incarcerated.
In the first half of the 19th century it was London's chief prison and prisoners were held there before execution. In 1783 the gallows had been moved from Tyburn to Newgate and every Monday morning large crowds would assemble outside the prison to watch the men and women executed. A seat at one of the windows overlooking the gallows could cost up to £10. It was even possible to get a warrant from the Lord Mayor of London to tour the prison. Newgate quickly became the most notorious prison in England, with visitors ranging from Charles Dickens to social reformer Elizabeth Fry.
Dickens described his visit, including such morbid curiosities as the Condemned Pew in the Chapel: "a huge black pen, in which the wretched people, who are singled out for death, are placed on the Sunday preceding their execution, in sight of all their fellow-prisoners, from many of whom they may have been separated but a week before, to hear prayers for their own souls, to join in the responses of their own burial service." Public executions were abolished in 1868, thenceforth carried out in the privacy of Newgate itself. Fry's evidence, presented to the House of Commons, led Newgate to be renovated in 1858, with the addition of individual cells. Fry had been particularly concerned by the treatment of women and children who were often abused in the large common areas housing most of Newgate's prisoners.
The prison was closed in 1902, demolished in 1904, and the new Central Criminal Court ('Old Bailey') was built on the site. Some of the fixtures of the old prison were donated to the London Museum.