The Gaol: The Story of Newgate, London’s Most Notorious Prison by Kelly Grovier
John Murray, £25
THE long and dreadful history of Newgate Gaol began in the 12th century. The old prison was destroyed in 1780 during the Gordon riots but rebuilt in 1782. Until 1868 public executions took place outside the prison. I was first exposed to its daunting power when reading Charles Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge as young man. Dickens was obviously fascinated with Newgate and gives it the full treatment in Sketches by Boz, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations. Then I saw it portrayed in Hogarth, was bowled over by The Beggars Opera and, over the years, I’ve read volumes of the Newgate Calendar, which narrates the stories of its most notorious inhabitants. The gaol was finally abolished in 1904 – the Central Criminal Court was built on its site – and yet Newgate still haunts the popular imagination.
In an isolated corner of central London, at the back of Amen Court, there is a children’s playground beneath which “lie fragments of the long forgotten remains of countless murders and madmen, poisoners and pickpockets, highwaymen and thieves…behind the back wall of the most menacing structure in all the British Empire: Newgate Prison.”
We are thus led dramatically into what purports to be a history of Newgate. And, make no mistake, The Gaol is a great idea. It is just a pity that the book itself is such a disappointment. Descriptions of prison life in this hell hole, the special patois of Newgate, its numerous barbarities, highlights of its appalling history, lives of famous and infamous guests, the socio-economic system of this hideous world, the way inmates pitifully provided income for those in power – the ingredients are fascinating. But this is a fragmentary collection of various sources of evidence. Such splendid ingredients need a good recipe to turn them into a proper dish.
Kelly Grovier decided to make his book a series of chapters, each based on one Newgate’s unique cant definitions, eg “Gape-Seed: whatever the gazing Crowd idly stars and gapes after; as Puppet-shews, Rope-danglers, Monsters and Mountebanks: anything to feed the eye” and that might including dangling body bits, human heads as well as public executions. He uses this to discuss and illustrate one of Newgate’s features. But, unfortunately, this book is less than the sum of its parts; a book to dip into in a waiting room rather than read all the way through.
There is, though, a salutary lesson in its pages: severe punishment seems to have little effect on reducing criminal behaviour. And be warned: read it too extensively at a stretch and you could have some terrible dreams.
Robert Giddings
