OLD LONDON PRISONS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 257, 25 July 1921, Page 3

OLD LONDON PRISONS

The selection of Wandsworth Prison for the execution of the two men condemned for the Eastbourne crime need have caused no surprise, when once it had been decided to bring them <o London, for the capital of tho Empire has lost’ most of its prisons, says the "Manchester Guardian.” Not so many years ago thero were several places where the rieath sentence could be carried out, but they have almost gone. Of course, the Fleet and the Marshalsea belong to almost ancient history now, but th® l ® were others. Horsemonger Lane Gaol disappeared much more recently, and Coldbath Fields Prison was incorporated the Parcel Post Office only a few years ago. The Old Clerkenwell Prison was done away with not long before, nnd Holloway 'is given up to women prisoners. As a matter of fact, the executions there were stopped largely at the request of the owners of Hie adjacent houses, who not unnaturally objroted to the tolling of the bell, tho hoisting of the black flag, and—worst of all—in the old days the full view of the final scene which their windows commanded.