Bridewell Prison

Coordinates: 51°30′42.46″N 0°6′20.73″W / 51.5117944, -0.1057583

The Pass Room at Bridewell from Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808–1811), drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin. At this time paupers from outside London apprehended by the authorities could be imprisoned for seven days before being sent back to their own parish. Ackermann refers to the room used here as being for "one class of miserable females" among the paupers; presumably mentioning the existence of unmarried mothers would have been unacceptable to his readership.

Bridewell Palace, London, originally a residence of Henry VIII, later became a poorhouse and prison. Its name has come to be synonymous with police stations and detention facilities in England and Ireland.

It was built on the site of the medieval St Bride's Inn at a cost of £39,000 for Henry VIII, who lived there between 1515–1523. Standing on the banks of the Fleet River, it was named for a nearby well dedicated to St Bride. The papal delegation had preliminary meetings here in 1528 to discuss the King's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. A pet project of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, it was abandoned by the king after Wolsey's fall in 1530. It was leased to the French ambassador 1531–1539.

In 1553, Edward VI gave the palace over to the City of London for the housing of homeless children and for the punishment of 'disorderly women'. The City took full possession in 1556 and turned the palace into a prison, hospital, and workrooms. The name 'Bridewell' was also adopted for other prisons in London, including the Clerkenwell Bridewell (opened in 1615) and Tothill Fields Bridewell in Westminster.

Similar institutions throughout England, Ireland, and Canada [1] also borrowed the name Bridewell. Nowadays, the term frequently refers to a city's main detention facility, usually in close proximity to a courthouse, as in Nottingham, Leeds, Gloucester, Bristol, Dublin and Cork.

Eventually, the site of Bridewell Palace became a school known as Bridewell Royal Hospital. Most of the palace was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1666–1667. In 1700 it became the first prison to appoint medical staff (a doctor). The prison was closed in 1855, and the buildings destroyed 1863–1864. The school moved to a new site in Surrey, and changed its name to King Edward's School, Witley. It celebrated its 450th year in 2003.

The original gate house is incorporated as the front of an office block at 19 New Bridge Street, including a relief portrait of Edward VI; The main site area of the school/ palace stretches from there southwards along the west-side of the street to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Unilever Building, (built 1931), which stands at the corner of 'Watergate' the previous river entrance to the precincts, off the Fleet-Thames confluence.1

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Royal palaces and residences in the United Kingdom
Occupied Royal Standard of the United Kingdom

Royal Standard of the United Kingdom in Scotland
Historical

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  • This page was last modified on 4 December 2008, at 23:06.

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