Newgate: London's Prototype of Hell

Of all London's prisons Newgate was the most notorious. From the twelfth to the twentieth century Newgate occupied the site of one of the ancient Roman gates of London. It was rebuilt five times before being demolished and replaced by the Old Bailey. Newgate housed, among many others, Daniel Defoe, Titus Oates and the Italian libertine Giacomo Casanova. Trials lasted about fifteen minutes and the execution prcessions from Newgate to Tyburn were so riotous that they were discontinued in favour of hangings outside Newgate itself. Stephen Halliday mixes contemporary acocunts, illustrations and biographical sketches to throw new light on the history of this building whose name has passed into the language in an ominous phrase: 'as black as Newgate's knocker'.