Wandsworth (HM Prison)

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HM Prison Wandsworth Gaol is a British prison in the Wandsworth area of London whose former inmates include writer Oscar Wilde, organised crime leader Ronnie Kray ^[1] and Ronnie Biggs, a participant in the Great Train Robbery, who successfully escaped from the prison in 1965 before fleeing the country.

Wandsworth was the site of 135 executions, from 1878 to 1961. Among those executed were Duncan Scott-Ford, William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and John Amery who were hanged for treachery, as well as George Chapman, John George Haigh, Guenther Podola and August Sangret hanged for murder.

The gaol was built in 1851 when it was known as Surrey House of Correction. It was designed according to the humane Panopticon principle with a number of corridors radiating from a central control point with each prisoner having toilet facilities. The toilets were subsequently removed to increase prison capacity and the prisoners had to engage in the purposefully humiliating process of 'slopping-out' until 1996. Wandsworth contains eight wings on two units. The smallest unit, containing three wings, was originally designed for women but now houses the Vulnerable Prisoners Unit - primarily those convicted of sex offences.

In 1930, inmate James Edward Spiers, serving a 10 year sentence for armed robbery committed suicide in front of a group of Justices of the Peace who were there to witness him receive 15 lashes, then a form of corporal punishment. ^[2]

In 1951, the gaol was chosen as the site for a national stock of two types of implement for serious corporal punishment inflicted in prison under Magistrate's orders, either as part of the original sentence or as a disciplinary punishment under the prison rules - birch and cat o' nine tails.^{[citation needed]}

One of the last prisoners to be executed, 19-year-old Derek Bentley, was controversially hanged in 1953 for murder.

The gallows were dismantled in 1993 and the condemed suite is now used as a tea room for the prison officers which is located next to the Death Chamber/Gallows on E2 landing..^{[citation needed]}

As of June 2005, the operational capacity of Wandsworth Prison was 1416, making it the largest prison in London, and the second largest in Britain, after Liverpool prison.

[edit] In Popular culture

Wandsworth is mentioned in:
- The Squeeze song Cool for Cats.
- Spike (Elvis Costello album) song Let Him Dangle.
- Gene (band) song Truth rest your head.