London History - London, 1674 to 1715 - Central Criminal Court. The Urban Contexts of Crimes Tried at the Old Bailey From war, plague and fire, London emerged into the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth, a city startling for its wealth and poverty, its bright modernity and ageless squalor. Contents of this Article Introduction The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed a third of London's medieval fabric, taking with it endless small and claustrophobic courts and alleys, but leaving behind a familiar street pattern, and a penumbra of older buildings.
Population By 1715 the population of the capital had reached nearly 630,000 individuals, from perhaps 500,000 in 1674, and London was on the verge of becoming the largest city in Western Europe, challenged for this role only by Paris. Built Environment The central third of the capital was rebuilt after the Great Fire to a regular pattern of two, three and four story buildings punctuated by new churches, markets and open spaces. Social Structure Occupations Culture and Politics.
View of Pentonville Prison. View of Pentonville Prison. Illustrated London News 2 (7 January 1843): 1. Scanned image, text, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham On the 13th of August, 1842, The Illustrated London News printed a picture of and a brief story about the new, model prison at Pentonville, near Holloway, Middlesex, mentioning a recent parliamentary bill sponsored by Sir James Graham and Mr.
Manners Sutton to open the recently constructed edifice for the reception of convicts. The preamble to the bill asserts that the new prison will be "most conducive to their reformation and to the repression of crime" (217). We believe the whole principle of the erection resolves itself into a greater uniformity of plan and purpose than has yet been exhibited in prison architecture. Five months later, in the issue of 7 January 1843, the Illustrated London News described the Pentonville Prison at greater length: The Inhumanity of the Silent System in Pentonville Other illustrations of the prison References.
Old Bailey Online - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 - Central Criminal Court. London Lives 1690 to 1800 ~ Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis. Database of Archives of Non-Governmental Organisations. Outlaws and Highwaymen. Family History - Church Courts. FreeBMD Home Page.