Bridewell Palace

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The Pass Room at Bridewell from Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808–1811), drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin. At this time paupers from outside London apprehended by the authorities could be imprisoned for seven days before being sent back to their own parish. Ackermann refers to the room used here as being for "one class of miserable females" among the paupers; presumably mentioning the existence of unmarried mothers would have been unacceptable to his readership.
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The Pass Room at Bridewell from Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808–1811), drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin. At this time paupers from outside London apprehended by the authorities could be imprisoned for seven days before being sent back to their own parish. Ackermann refers to the room used here as being for "one class of miserable females" among the paupers; presumably mentioning the existence of unmarried mothers would have been unacceptable to his readership.

Bridewell Palace, London, was a residence of Henry VIII, later a poorhouse and prison. The name has come to be synonymous with police stations and detention facilities in England and Ireland.

It was built for Henry VIII on the site of the medieval St Bride's Inn at a cost of £39,000, who lived there between 1515–1523. Standing on the banks of the Fleet River, it was named for 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. A pet project of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, it was abandoned by the king after Wolsey's fall in 1530. It was leased to the French ambassador 1531–1539.

In 1553 Edward VI gave over the palace 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 palace into a prison, hospital and workrooms.

Similar institutions throughout England, Ireland and Canada [1] borrowed the name Bridewell. Nowadays, the term frequently refers to a city's main detention facility, usually in close proximity to a courthouse, as in Leeds, Gloucester, Bristol, Dublin and Cork.

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 destroyed 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.

The main site of the palace is now occupied by the Unilever Building, (built 1931).

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Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about:

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Royal Palaces and residencies in the United Kingdom
Occupied: Bagshot Park | Balmoral Castle | Buckingham Palace | Clarence House | Gatcombe Park | Highgrove | Hillsborough Castle | Holyrood Palace | St. James's Palace | Kensington Palace | Sandringham House | Thatched House Lodge | Windsor Castle
Historical: Palace of Beaulieu | Beaumont Palace | Bridewell Palace | Brantridge Park | Cadzow Castle | Cumberland Lodge | Dunfermline Palace | Eltham Palace | Falkland Palace | Fort Belvedere | Hampton Court Palace | Kew Palace | Linlithgow Palace | Marlborough House | Castle of Mey | Nonsuch Palace | Osborne House | Palace of Placentia | Queen's House | Richmond Palace | Royal Pavilion | Savoy Palace | Tower of London | Palace of Westminster | Palace of Whitehall | Woodstock Palace
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