Gatehouse Prison

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Gatehouse Prison was a prison in Westminster, London which was originally incorporated into a prison from the Westminster Abbey gatehouse during the 14th century. It was also 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^[1] and, throughout the 17th century, held many dissenters and those charged with treasonous crimes such as Laurence Voux^[2], Christopher Holywood^[3], Richard Lovelace, Samuel Pepys, Henry Savile^[4] and Sir Walter Raleigh (the latter two eventually transferred to the Tower of London) before it was eventually torn down in 1776.

The present day site of the former prison is part of the Westminster scholar's Crimean War Memorial.

[edit] Further reading

Forsythe, James Neild. State of the Prisons in England, Scotland, and Wales, Not for the Debtor Only, But for Felons Also, and Other Less Criminal Offenders. London: Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0-415-23127-2
Tanner, Lawrence Edward. Westminster School, Its Buildings and Their Associations. P. Allan, 1923.