2-632-248 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The King's Bench Prison as it appeared in 1823', c1827, (1912). The King's Bench Prison, Southwark, took its name from the King's Bench court of law in which cases of defamation, bankruptcy and other misdemeanours were heard. The prison was often used as a debtor's prison until the practice was abolished in the 1860s. In 1842, it was renamed the Queen's Prison, and later became the Southwark Convict Prison. From London - South of the Thames, by Sir Walter Besant. [Adam & Charles Black, London, 1912]