Bridewell Palace

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Coordinates: 51°30′42.46″N 0°6′20.73″W / 51.5117944°N 0.1057583°W / 51.5117944; -0.1057583

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"The Prospect of Bridewell" from John Strype's, An Accurate Edition of Stow's "A Survey of London" (1720)

Bridewell Palace in London, was originally a residence of King Henry VIII. It was built on the banks of the Fleet River in the City of London, between Fleet Street and the River Thames in an area today known as 'Bridewell Court' off New Bridge Street. Following its function as a palace, in 1555 it became a poorhouse and in 1556 it became a jail known as Bridewell prison. The prison was closed in 1855, and the buildings demolished in 1863–1864.

The name 'Bridewell' subsequently became synonymous with police stations and detention facilities in England and in Ireland. It was also used as the name of the city jail in Chicago in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Contents

History

Bridewell Palace

The Ambassadors (Holbein, 1533): Jean de Dinteville, ambassador to Francis I, with Georges de Selve (Bishop of Lavaur), at Bridewell Palace

The palace was built on the site of the medieval St Bride's Inn at a cost of £39,000 for Henry VIII, who lived there 1515–1523. Standing on the banks of the River Fleet, it was named after a nearby well dedicated to St Bride. The papal delegation had preliminary meetings here in 1528 to discuss the King's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The building was a project of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.

Bridewell Palace consisted of two brick-built courtyards, with the royal lodgings arranged around the three-storey inner courtyard. A grand processional staircase led to them from the outer courtyard. Bridewell was the first royal palace not to have a great hall and its processional staircase was a feature that recurs in Henry VIII's later residences. On the north side of the outer courtyard were the kitchens and gatehouse. There was a long gallery (240 feet or 80 metres) which connected the inner court with Blackfriars,1 issuing out at Apothecaries Hall on Blackfriars Lane.

After Wolsey's fall in 1530, the palace was leased to the French ambassador 1531–1539, and was the setting for Holbein's celebrated painting, The Ambassadors (1533).

From palace to prison

Edward VI grants a charter in 1553 to Bridewell Hospital

In 1553, Edward VI gave the palace over to the City of London for the housing of homeless children and for the punishment of "disorderly women". The City took full possession in 1556 and turned the site into a prison, hospital, and workrooms. In 1557 the administration of Bethlem Royal Hospital also became the responsibility of the Bridewell Governors.2

"A Scene in Bridewell", plate IV. William Hogarth, A Harlot's Progress, April 1732

In the late 17th century, the infamous London brothel keeper Elizabeth Cresswell was incarcerated in Bridewell Prison, possibly for reneging on a debt. She died there at some point between 1684-98.3456 She is probably interred in the Bridewell graveyard and legend runs that in her will she left £10 for a sermon to be read that said nothing ill of her. After considerable time, a young clergyman was found who would perform the funeral rites. After an extremely lengthy sermon on social morality, he said "By the will of the deceased it is expected that I should mention her and say nothing but what was well of her. All I shall say of her, therefore, is this — she was born well, lived well, and died well; for she was born with the name of Cresswell, lived at Clerkenwell, and died in Bridewell."78

The Pass Room at Bridewell from Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808–1811), drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin.

Eventually, the site of Bridewell Palace became a school known as Bridewell Royal Hospital. Most of the palace was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1666–1667. In 1700 it became the first prison to appoint medical staff (a doctor). The prison was closed in 1855, and the buildings demolished in 1863–1864. The school moved to a new site in Surrey, and changed its name to King Edward's School, Witley. It celebrated its 450th year in 2003.

Site of Bridewell Palace today

The original gate house is incorporated as the front of an office block at 14 New Bridge Street, including a relief portrait of Edward VI. The main site area of the school/ palace stretches from there southwards along the west-side of the street to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Unilever House, (built in 1931), which stands at the corner of "Watergate" - the previous river entrance to the precincts, off the Fleet-Thames confluence.9

Influence, legacy, and in popular culture

The name "Bridewell" became synonymous with large prisons, and was consequently used as a generic name for them. It was adopted for other prisons in London, including the Clerkenwell Bridewell (opened in 1615) and Tothill Fields Bridewell in Westminster. Similar institutions throughout England, Ireland, and Canada10 as well as in the United States11 also borrowed the name Bridewell. The term frequently refers to a city's main detention facility, usually close to a courthouse, as in Nottingham, Leeds, Gloucester, Bristol, Dublin and Cork.

In the Beatles film, A Hard Day's Night, Paul's grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell) reports the arrest of Ringo to the studio by saying "The police have the poor lad in the Bridewell - he'll be pulp by now!" shortly after the police have referred to the cheeky Ringo as "Charlie Peace" suggesting that this usage refers to the Leeds Bridewell, allegedly haunted by the ghost of Charlie Peace, a violent thief and double murderer who was held there before his trial and execution at Armley Gaol in 1879.

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bridewell.

References

  1. ^ "Bridewell Palace" at Pastscape, by English Heritage. Accessed 6 March 2013
  2. ^ Allderidge, Patricia (1979a), "Management and Mismanagement at Bedlam, 1547-1633", in Charles Webster, Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 141–164 [149], ISBN 9780521226431 
  3. ^ London: The Wicked City: A Thousand Years of Prostitution and Vice (2007) Fergus Linnane, Robson Ltd p73-77 ISBN 9781861059901
  4. ^ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 13, "Madam Cresswell" (1888) by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth Elder Smith & Co.
  5. ^ London, the Synfulle Citie (1990) E. J. Burford, University of Michigan p205
  6. ^ John Callow, "Madam Cresswell" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, Oxford online (subscription only)
  7. ^ The story is well sourced but probably apocryphal and there are many versions of what the clergyman's exact words. See Oxford Dictionary of National Biography John Callow, "Madam Cresswell" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004,
  8. ^ London, the Synfulle Citie (1990) E. J. Burford, University of Michigan p205
  9. ^ The Farringdon Wards of the City of London; by Tony Sharp London 2000
  10. ^ http://ace.acadiau.ca/soci/agt/justice/csaaprison86.htm
  11. ^ Wines, Enoch Cobb; Dwight, Theodore William (1867). Report on the prisons and reformatories of the United States and Canada: made to the Legislature of New York, January, 1867. Van Benthuysen & Sons. p. 337. Retrieved 2011-01-24. "Prisons intermediate between the Common Jail and the State Prison [...] receive different designations in the different states - house of correction, penitentiary, workhouse, bridewell and city prison. [...] Illinois has a bridewell in the city of Chicago, managed by the common council of the same." 

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