Gatehouse Prison

Gatehouse Prison was a prison in Westminster, built in 1370 as the gatehouse of Westminster Abbey and first used as a prison by the Abbot, a powerful churchman who held considerable power over the precincts and sanctuary. It was one of the prisons which supplied the Old Bailey with information on former prisoners (such as their identity or prior criminal records) for making indictments against criminals Richard Lovelace wrote "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage" while he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse for petitioning to have the Clergy Act 1640 annulled. The Gatehouse prison was torn down in 1776. At its site, in front of the Abbey's Great West Door, is the Westminster scholars' Crimean War Memorial. Giles...