clerkenwell house of detention/completed

[gazza]

Hi ,can anyone pinpoint the precise location of this former prison. It has been difficult to find out exactly where . One address given seems to be clerkenwell court,another map seems to show it in an adjacent street Northampton row. I know only the underground part remains.Some pictures of what is now on topof it  & surrounding buildings would be good if anyone knows of any.
Many thanks in advance.
gazza

[snowball]

Hi,
There's what looks like a contemporary pencil drawing of the site in the London Encylopaedia (Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert - my ed 1983). This gives the location as Clerkenwell Close.

The road layout has changed somwhat since then, but I think the site is now occupied by school and bounded on the east by Woodbridge Street, on the north by Corporation Row and the west by Clerkenwell Close. This is how it looks in comparison with my A to Z of Victorian London.

The entrance to the underground part - now a museum and used for corporate hospitality events! - is from Clerkenwell Close. I used to walk past it on the way to work.

I could try to scan the drawing, but it's pretty small and may not come out too well.

Rob

[liverpool annie]

Hi Gazza!

Found this - will this work?

http://www.corpoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/lma_learning/learningzone/lookatlondon/islington/isl_crime.asp?id=3

Annie

[gazza]

Thanks for that Rob & Annie.

Ps, did anyone see the the programme "Most Haunted" on FTN the other night on this place? Quite disturbing

Gazza

[Meliora]

The entrance to the Clerkenwell House of Correction lies immediately behind St James Church.

I used to pass this on the way to the Family Record Centre in Myddleton Road when I walked up from Farringdon Underground Station.  Coming out of the station, turn left & walk up Turnmill St, which runs parallel to Farringdon Road, cross over Clerkenwell Green to Clerkenwell Close which runs up the LH side of St James church, follow round to the right behind the church burial ground & you will find the brickbuilt entrance facing you.

I very much regret never having gone down into the underground section due to pressure of time getting to the FRO, I only went in to see the exhibits on view in the entrance.

Hope this helps.

Meliora

[Noddymac]

Hi.  The House of Detention is situated in Clerkenwell Close and is a very small entrance in brick wall.  The prison is only actually underground - from what I gather there were 3 floors and all were knocked down and a school is now above the prison - Hugh Myddleton School.   My sisters and I visited this place some years ago and it was most unnerving - part of the underground prison was still not excavated as they had run out of  money to do any more so it just had a gate across the passageway - to think that it was untouched for so many years and you could put your hand through the grill to touch old bricks etc.  There were also old record books in the office upstairs that you could look through - some of the stories were horrifying.  A simple case of someone walking down the road with a horse and because they could not prove it was theirs, they were imprisoned until they could.  Children were also imprisoned here - some very young, and some were even deported.  After watching the programme the other night I was going to see if it had been re-opened as we heard it had closed down through lack of money - anyone know any more about this please?  If anyone needs photos of outside I could get them as my family still live nearby.

[Alex_Builder]

Hello guys this is my first post as i noticed this thread on google.

I am currently doing building work on the clerkenwell house of detention.. been doing work down there since june 18th. the house of detention is owned by a group called itasca locations.. they have lots of old propertys that they rent out for films mostly in london. i am employed by itasca locations to do some work on the places with 6 other guys as alot of the places are old and bad state.

now let me tell you somethimng first guys the clerkenwell house of detention is in a disgusting state, we been doing work on it since june.. doing alot of repairs. It is very very damp and all of the floors are un-even, the walls are rotting and there are puddles of water everywhere. it is very un safe and it does not have a fire safety certificate. The fire brigade wrote the building off because if there is a fire then basically anyone in the wings of the place would die because the exit is so far away. there is only 1 exit door and the place is big!. there was another exit with stairs that went out into a garden but the stairs are so rotten that we had to take them down.

i was also told by itasca locations that the building has not had a health and safety certificate since 1999 when islington council sold it so most haunted and any ghost group who has been there since has been there ILLEAGLY and they can sue the owners at the time if they want to.

if any of you are interested in visiting then i have no problem with it.. i am working there during the day on weekdays with few other guys.. itasca loations will never find out because they never vist, they only have a contract out for us to repair the place which is in a terrible way. BUT like i said the place is un-safe, all the floors are un-even and everything is very damp, no sunlight down there. i would not charge anyone if you wanted to have a look... i am interested in ghosts so i would not charge anyone. i have seen no ghost down there but me and the other builders all heard weird noises a few times and strange smells. thank you alex

P.S - im sorry but you cant do a ghost hunt in the night because i am only doing building repairs down there from 8:30am - 4pm in the day time only. so if you wanted to have a look round the place then only day time mon-fri, thanks alex.

IF you wanna have a look round then PM me and i will give you my number, the entrance is on st james walk, which is next to sans walk in clerekenwell.

[RCy]

Hi Alex, I'll be most interested in getting in touch with you. I am PMing you my details - once I make 3 posts.

[Heatherp6]

Has anyone been down there since this topic was opened