Place    From 1329  To 1849

Marshalsea Prison

Categories: Law

Originally built to hold prisoners being tried by the Marshalsea Court and the Court of the King's Bench. Its first site, from at least 1329 was on Borough High Street on the block now bordered by Newcomen Street and Mermaid Court. The Marshalsea only became exclusively a debtors' prison in the mid 17th century. Never a model of cleanliness and godliness it was condemned in about 1800 and a new building was constructed on the site of the White Lion Prison (also called the Borough Jail or County Prison), at Angel Place where it was, for a time at least, alongside the King's Bench Prison. British History has the best map we have found showing the locations. The amount of land used by the second Marshalsea varied but at one time it was on either side of the alley. The two sides were very different, known as master-side and common-side, one was relatively clean and agreeable, the other was filthy and inhumane.

On this second site it served its function from 1811 until 1842 when the prisoners were transferred to the new Queen's Prison (a few streets away to the south-west) or, if considered mad, to Bedlam. Most of the buildings were demolished in 1849. In 1824 Charles Dickens' father was, for 12 weeks, one of the debtors imprisoned here. Consequently Marshalsea figures prominently in the Dickens novel Little Dorrit. Dickens remembered "In every respect indeed but elbow room the whole family lived more comfortably in prison than they had done for a long time out of it." Ian Visits has a good post about the Marshalsea.

This area of London certainly attracted prisons, presumably for the same reason that it, at one time, attracted theatres, bearpits and whorehouses - its "Goldilocks" proximity to the City, and it being outside the jurisdiction of both the Cities of London and Westminster.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Marshalsea Prison

Commemorated ati

Marshalsea 1 - stone - round

Quoted from Chapter 3 of Little Dorrit.

Read More

Marshalsea 2 - steel

The plaque refers to 'wall mounted artworks' but we did not see any on our vi...

Read More

Marshalsea 3 - stone - Little Dorrit

The heroine of Dickens' novel Little Dorrit was one resident who was not a pr...

Read More

Marshalsea 4 - stone - spiral

Quoted from Charles Dickens' preface to Little Dorrit.

Read More

Marshalsea 5 - stone - at gates

This is our first push-me-pull-you plaque. It is in Angel Alley at the gates...

Read More

Show all 6

Other Subjects

Robert Davis

Robert Davis

Solicitor and Westminster Councillor. Mayor of Westminster 1996/97.

Person, Law, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
R. J. Buckingham

R. J. Buckingham

Mayor of Hammersmith 1946 - 49. Our colleague Andrew Behan has researched this man: Reginald James Buckingham was born on 8 April 1887 in Exeter, Devon. He was the second child and only son of Fre...

Person, Law, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Tun prison, Cornhill

Tun prison, Cornhill

The Sole Society say The Tun "stood here between 1283 and 1401 and was used in the main to incarcerate ‘street walkers and lewd women’. Stocks and a pillory replaced it and in 1703 Daniel Defoe, wh...

Place, Law

1 memorial
Sir William Addison

Sir William Addison

Historian and author. Born William Wilkinson Addison at Mitton, Lancashire. He moved to Buckhurst Hill on the edge of Epping Forest, Essex, and began a lifelong association with the area, which res...

Person, Law, Literature

1 memorial
German prisoners of war at Alexandra Palace - WW1

German prisoners of war at Alexandra Palace - WW1

Over 17,000 German and other civilian prisoners of war were interned at Alexandra Palace between 1914 and 1919. British Association for Local History says up to 3,000 internees slept in rows of pla...

Group, Law, Germany

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Thomas Earp

Thomas Earp

Architectural carver. Born Nottinghamshire. Worked out of 1 Kennington Road. Do not confuse with Thomas Earp the politician, with similar dates.

Person, Sculpture

2 memorials
Brixton nail bomb

Brixton nail bomb

The bomb which injured 48 people, was planted by neo-Nazi bomber David Copeland. Copeland, who was also responsible for the nail bomb attacks in Brick Lane (24 April) and at the Admiral Duncan pub...

Event, Race Issues, Terrorism, Tragedy

2 memorials
William Shipley

William Shipley

WC2, Henrietta Street, 25

This plaque commemorates the tercentenary of Shipley's birth and the site of RSA's first meeting place. Interesting that this is a Westmi...

3 subjects commemorated, 2 creators