Status Closed Opened c1820 | Population 109 (as of 1849) Capacity 240 | |
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Clerkenwell (old) Prison, also known as the Clerkenwell House of Detention or Middlesex House of Detention was a prison in Clerkenwell, London. It held prisoners awaiting trial.
It stood on Bowling Green Lane conveniently close to the Middlesex Sessions House, where prisoners would be tried, on Clerkenwell Green to the south.
History
The House of Detention was built on the site of two earlier prisons, the Clerkenwell Bridewell for convicted prisoners and the New Prison for those awaiting trial. The Bridewell closed in 1794 and its functions were taken over by the Coldbath Fields Prison at Mount Pleasant. The New Prison was rebuilt in 1818 and in 1847, at which time its name changed to the House of Detention.
On 13 December 1867 its exercise yard was the target of a gunpowder explosion instigated by members of the Fenian Society in an attempt to aid the escape of Richard Burke, an arms supplier to the Fenians. The blast killed twelve bystanders and wounded 120 in Corporation Row; and the event is became known as the "Clerkenwell Outrage". Some of those responsible were executed, with ringleader Michael Barrett becoming the last person to be publicly executed outside Newgate Prison.
The prison was demolished in 1890. The site was then used for the Hugh Myddleton School, built in 1893 and closed in c.1960. The school building has now been converted into flats. The vaults beneath, dating from the prison era, and now known as the "Clerkenwell Catacombs", remained. They were reopened as air-raid shelters during the Blitz, and can still be accessed via an entrance on Clerkenwell Close. For a few years the vaults were open as a tourist attraction. Various movies have been filmed in the catacombs.
