The Poultry Compter (also sometimes known as Poultry Counter) was a small compter or prison run by a Sheriff in the City of London from medieval times until 1815. It took its name from its location on a section of Cheapside known as 'Poultry' due to the produce that was originally sold in streetmarkets along that part of the thoroughfare.
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The compter was used to house prisoners such as vagrants, debtors and religious dissenters, and criminals convicted of misdemeanours, including homosexuality, prostitution and drunkenness.
On 1 August 1772, for instance, The Craftsman reported that: "a well dressed man was detected, near Lombard-street, in an unnatural crime, and immediately committed to the Poultry Compter."[1] On 5 July 1799, a Friday evening at 7 o'clock, a naked man was arrested, at the Mansion House, London, and sent to the Poultry Compter. He confirmed that he had accepted a wager of 10 guineas (equal to £735 today) to run naked from Cornhill to Cheapside.[2]
The prison became notorious for its bad conditions. A contemporary account describes the prison in the late 18th century:
Certainly, the state of the prison was giving considerable cause for concern and in 1804, an official report said the prison was:
This report was contained in a preamble to the London Debtors' Prisons Act 1804 enabling the City's authorities to move inmates to another City prison (Giltspur Street Compter), although this purpose was not achieved until 1815, following the passage of the Debtors Prison for London and Middlesex Act 1815. The building was eventually demolished in 1817.
The Poultry Compter was connected with early struggles against the slave-trade; several slaves released by Granville Sharp were confined in the Compter. For example, in 1765, Sharp helped a mis-treated and abandoned slave, John Strong, recover from serious injuries and found him employment with an apothecary. Strong's owner sought the help of John Ross, keeper of the Poultry Compter, and William Miller, an officer under the Lord Mayor of London, to kidnap him, and Strong was then imprisoned in the Compter and subsequently sold for £30. Sharp appealed to the Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Kite and Strong was released on the grounds that no warrant had been issued for his arrest and confinement.[4]