Duke Street Prison

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Duke Street Prison is one of 8 prisons which used to stand in and around Glasgow. By 1840 most of these were closed except Duke Street Prison (also known as Bridgewall or the Northern Prison) and Glasgow Green Prison (known as 'Burgh' or the Southern Prison) which closed in 1863. Between its first prisoners arriving in 1798 and 1872, various improvements were made to the structure but not to the terrible living conditions which were mentioned in the Glasgow street song sung to the tune of 'God Save the Queen'.

There is a happy land,

doon Duke Street Jail,

Where a' the prisoners stand,

tied tae a nail.

Ham an' eggs they never see,

dirty watter fur yer tea;

there they live in misery

God Save the Queen!

After the transfer of responsibility to the state from local authorities, Barlinnie was built (1882) in order to take over from 'Bridgewall' which remained open until 1955. As Duke Street prison held women prisoners from around Scotland, many Suffragettes and political activists were imprisoned here whose protests at the living conditions would eventually lead to the closure in 1955. It was demolished in 1958 to eventually make way for the Ladywell housing scheme which was built on the site from 1961- 1964 and stands till this day. The only remaining structure of Duke Street Prison is some of the boundary wall^[1]

12 Executions were carried out here between 1865 and 1928 and the last woman to be executed in Scotland and at the time the first in over 50 years, Susan Newell^[2] was hung here for strangling a paper boy and refused the traditional white hood. Others where:-

Executed	Name	Crime
12/11/1902	Patrick Leggett	The murder of Sarah Jane Leggett
26/07/1904	Thomas Gunning	The murder of Agnes Allen
14/11/1905	Pasha Liffey	The murder of Mary Jane Welsh
16/05/1917	Thomas McGuiness	The murder of Alexander Imlach
11/11/1919	James Adams	The murder of Mary Doyle (Kane)
26/05/1920	Albert James Fraser	The murder of Henry Senior
26/05/1920	James Rollins	The murder of Henry Senior
21/02/1922	William Harkness	The murder of Elizabeth Benjamin
10/10/1923	Susan Newell	The murder of John Johnstone^[3]
24/09/1925	John Keen	The murder of Noorh Mohammed
24/01/1928	James McKay	The murder of Agnes Arbuckle
03/08/1928	George Reynolds	The murder of Thomas Lee

Photographs from 1955 onward taken by the camera clubs of the time have been on display throughout Glasgow and are now part of the Glasgow Museums collection.