Touching a doorway to hell – the old door of Newgate Prison

There was no place grimmer on this planet than Newgate Prison and as someone once wrote…“It was, almost from its beginning, an emblem of death and suffering… a legendary place, where the very stones were considered ‘deathlike’…it became associated with hell, and its smell permeated the streets and houses beside it.”

Indeed if something is beyond bleak or bad people still say the situation is “as black as Newgate knocker”. Sometimes being a historian and a tour guide is a double-edged sword one is well aware of the absolutely horrible events and places that are scattered everywhere, especially in the City of London where you’re no more than 2 or 3 minutes walk from a gallows.

I found the Executions exhibition to be fantastic but also very grim. It is incredible how big a part of every day life executions used to be. Not just the well-known crowds but entire industries developed around them, London after all has always been about making money. Newsheets were printed, food and drink was sold. People sang execution ballads, indeed I was humming one when I cut my lawn the next day. The exhibition covered every aspect of life relating to Executions and indeed Executions impacted upon every aspect of life.

The stories of others who were executed, and the impact on their families, are also covered in the exhibition. “We are mapping execution sites and also places where bodies were gibbeted, so they are hung in gibbet cages as a warning against crime. The condemned were measured up as if for a fine suit so that their gibbet would fit them perfectly, it must have been dreadful but then their body might be on display for many years after their death.

Those who witnessed executions are also under scrutiny – from why they turned up to how they reacted. They could be quite supportive to somebody who was being executed and throw flowers to them and shout ‘good luck’ and things like that. Or if it was a particular horrible crime that had been committed, they could totally vilify the person who was being hanged, and throw things, and swear and shout at them and boo and hiss.

One of the exhibits that kind of made my day was coming across the cold black door of Newgate Prison as well as many other artefacts from that place which though now almost entirely redeveloped, I walk past every day.

This is the door countless souls were led through on their way to be publicly executed on the street near where the Old Bailey is today. Most people gave it a wary glance but I decided to touch it. A part of me wondered whether like in some dark horror film, I’d feel an imprint of all the murderers and indeed those who committed any number of hundreds of crimes that led to capital punishment. I must say I do feel like Boris and Rishi should be put on trial and if found guilty, then do a jig on the end of a rope but alas, I was off that opinion beforehand!

Above you can see one of the hangings on the street. In their later years it is incredible to think that people came on the London Underground to watch these events.

There are still some old lanes and alleys which centuries ago had a very sordid reputation but there is no need to show them here as the photo above clearly shows the old church is still the same (as indeed is the pub on the right which is in my Historic London Pub Tours.

The green yew trees on the left are a modern little garden. Yew trees in the U.K. are often found in churchyards and have connections with death, remembrance and ever-lasting life. I’m pretty certain these yews were recently planted as a subtle memorial to those executed here.