2-888-340 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ward for Condemned Male Prisoners, Newgate Prison, [London], 1850. 'Those sentenced capitally are taken to the condemned cells, not to leave them again until their last moment, except for chapel. These cells are built in the old portion of the building at the back. The narrow port-holes in the dark wall looking into Newgate-street let light into the galleries into which they open. There are five of them on each of the three floors. The culprit in the furthest cell on the ground-floor is within a yard of the passers-by...High up...is a small window, double-grated. The doors are four inches thick...In a small ante-room, near the entrance of the prison, is a collection of casts, taken from the heads of the principal malefactors who have been recently executed in front of it - very interesting to the student of phrenological science'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.