Horsemonger Lane Gaol (also known as the Surrey County Gaol or the New Gaol) was a prison located close to modern-day Newington Causeway in Southwark, south London. Newington Causeway is a road in Southwark, London SE1, between the Elephant and Castle and Borough High Street. ... The Borough or Southwark is an area of the London Borough of Southwark situated 1. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and the largest city of England (strangely, England has no constitutional existence within the United Kingdom, and therefore cannot be said to have a capital). ...

History

Constructed between 1791 and 1799 to a design by George Gwilt the Elder, architect surveyor to the county of Surrey, this was once the largest prison in the county, and was adjacent to Sessions House, a court building also designed by Gwilt. Architect at his drawing board, 1893 An Ciara Danille Bowers is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... Surveying is concerned with the application of mathematics and physics in obtaining accurate measurements for the determination of the position of points on the Earths surface. ... Surrey is a county in southern England, part of the South East England region and one of the Home Counties. ...

Horsemonger Lane remained Surrey’s principal prison and place of execution up to its closure in 1878. It was a common gaol, housing both debtors and criminals, with a capacity of around 300 inmates. In total, 131 men and four women were executed there between 1800 and 1877, the gallows being erected on the flat roof of the prison's gatehouse. In economics a debtor (or a borrower) owes money to a creditor. ... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ... These gallows in Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park are maintained by Arizona State Parks. ...

By 1859, the gaol was no longer known as 'Horsemonger Lane' following the road's change of name to Union Road (today: Harper Road), being renamed Surrey County Gaol.

The gaol was demolished in 1881 and the site is today a public park, Newington Gardens, adjacent to the present Inner London Crown Court, opened in January 1921.

Literary connections

In 1849, Charles Dickens attended the public hangings outside the Gaol of husband and wife Frederick and Maria Manning, who had killed a friend for his money and buried him under the kitchen floor. Dickens wrote to The Times condemning such public spectacles.^[1] Dickens redirects here. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ...

Dickens later based the character of Hortense in Bleak House on Maria Manning, while Mrs Chivery's tobacco shop in Little Dorrit is located on Horsemonger Lane.^[2] Executions at Horsemonger Lane are also mentioned in Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith. Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly parts between March 1852 and September 1853. ... Little Dorrit is a serial novel by Charles Dickens published originally between 1855 and 1857. ... Sarah Waters (born in Wales, 1966) is a British novelist. ... Fingersmith Fingersmith is undoubtedly the best work that Sarah Waters has produced to date. ...

Inmates

• Edward Marcus Despard (executed at the gaol on 21 February 1803)
• Leigh Hunt
• Maria Manning (executed at the gaol, alongside her husband, on 13 November 1849)
• William Chester Minor
• Robert Taylor
• Arthur Tooth
• Margaret Waters (executed at the gaol on 11 October 1870)

Edward Marcus Despard (1751-1803), Irish-born British colonel turned revolutionary, was born in Queens Co. ... February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... An artists rendering of James Henry Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (October 19, 1784 - August 28, 1859) was an English essayist and writer. ... November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... William Chester Minor (W. C. Minor) (June 1834–March 26, 1920) was an American surgeon who made many scholarly contributions to the Oxford English Dictionary while confined to a lunatic asylum. ... Reverend Robert Taylor (1784 – 1844), was an early 19th century Radical, a clergyman turned freethinker whose Infidel home missionary tour was a dramatic incident in Charles Darwins education, subsequently leaving Charles Darwin with a horrifying memory of the Devils Chaplain as a warning of the dangers of dissent... Father Arthur Tooth SSC (1839–1931), a Ritualist and clergyman in the Church of England, and a member of the Society of the Holy Cross, is most famous for having being prosecuted in 1876 under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 for using proscribed liturgical practices. ... Margaret Waters was hanged by William Calcraft in 1870. ... October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

References

• Horsemonger Lane Gaol
• London footprints: Crime & Punishment
• 'The Old Kent Road', Old and New London: Volume 6 (1878), pp. 248-55. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45279. Date accessed: 19 December 2006.
• Old Towns of England, London in 1839, Pt 6

1. ^ http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/mannings.html Mannings murder and execution
2. ^ Dickens' London map