
Bridewell Palace in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
was built as a residence of King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. Given to the City of London Corporation by his son King
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...
for use as an
orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abu ...
and place of correction for wayward women, Bridewell later became the first prison/poorhouse to have an appointed doctor. It was built on the banks of the
Fleet River in the City of London between
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...
and the River Thames in an area today known as Bridewell Place, off New Bridge Street. By 1556 part of it had become a jail known as Bridewell Prison. It was reinvented with lodgings and was closed in 1855 and the buildings demolished in 1863–1864.
The name "Bridewell" subsequently became a common name for a jail, used not only in England but in other cities colonised by Britain including Dublin, Chicago and New York.
History
Bridewell Palace

The palace was built on the site of the medieval St Bride's Inn directly south of
St Bride's Church at a cost of £39,000 for Henry VIII who treated it as a main London residence 1515–1523. Standing on the banks of the
River Fleet, the related saint since the medieval age has been
St Bride. The papal delegation had preliminary meetings here in 1528 before advising the pope on whether the King could divorce
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
. The building was a project of
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figu ...
.
Bridewell Palace consisted of two brick-built courtyards, with the royal lodgings in three storeys around the inner courtyard. A grand processional staircase led to them from the outer courtyard. Bridewell was the first royal palace not to have a great hall and its staircase was a feature that recurs in Henry VIII's later residences. On the north side of the outer courtyard stood the kitchens and gatehouse. There was a long gallery () which connected the inner court with Blackfriars, issuing out at Apothecaries Hall on Blackfriars Lane which formerly ran beyond its western façade.
After Wolsey's fall in 1530, the palace was leased to the French ambassador 1531–1539, and was the setting for
Holbein's celebrated painting, ''
The Ambassadors'' (1533).
From palace to orphanage/prison to school

In 1553,
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...
gave the palace over to the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
for the
housing of homeless children and for the punishment of "disorderly women". The City took full possession in 1556 and turned the site into a prison, hospital and workrooms. In 1557 the City authorities created a joint administration for the
Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals when
Bethlem Royal Hospital also became the responsibility of the Bridewell Governors.

In the late 17th century, the infamous London brothel keeper
Elizabeth Cresswell was incarcerated in Bridewell Prison, possibly for reneging on a debt. She died there at some point between 1684 and 1698. She is probably interred in the Bridewell graveyard and legend runs that in her will she left £10 for a sermon to be read that said nothing ill of her. After considerable time, a young clergyman was found who would perform the funeral rites. After an extremely lengthy sermon on social morality, he said "By the will of the deceased it is expected that I should mention her and say nothing but what was well of her. All I shall say of her, therefore, is this — she was born well, lived well, and died well; for she was born with the name of Cresswell, lived at Clerkenwell, and died in Bridewell."

Most of the palace was destroyed in the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...
, and rebuilt in 1666–1667. In 1700 it became the first prison to appoint medical staff (a doctor).
Eventually, the prison became a school confusingly and variously known as Bridewell (Royal Hospital/School/Royal Hospital School). The prison element closed in 1855 and the buildings were demolished in 1863–1864. Nevertheless, some prison activities continued on the site: in the 1871 census, the Beadle and Turnkey, Joseph Ashley, had charge of two prisoners; and in 1881 Mr Ashley was still there as Collector and Beadle, but no prisoners are named. The school moved in 1867 to a much larger site in
Surrey and changed its name to
King Edward's School, Witley which accordingly celebrated its 450th year in 2003.
Part of the vacated site was used for the erection of
De Keyser's Royal Hotel in 1874, which was requisitioned for military purposes in 1915 and became the subject of a
leading case on the use of the
royal prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in the ...
decided by the House of Lords
in 1920. By 1921
Lever Brothers had acquired the hotel building for use as the head office of the company's business.
Site today
A rebuilt gatehouse in the style of the original is incorporated as the front of the office block at 14 New Bridge Street, including a relief portrait of Edward VI. The main site area of the buildings stretched from there southwards through the Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars Hotel to
Unilever House (built in 1931) which stands at the corner of Watergate – the name of the lost river entrance to the palace's precincts beside the former Fleet-Thames confluence (memorialised in the name of the street between the two).
Influence, legacy, and in popular culture
The name "Bridewell" became synonymous with large prisons and was consequently used as a generic name for them. It was adopted for other prisons in London, including the
Clerkenwell Bridewell (opened in 1615) and
Tothill Fields Bridewell in
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buck ...
.
Similar institutions throughout England, Ireland, Scotland and Canada as well as in the United States also borrowed the name Bridewell. The term frequently refers to a city's main detention facility, usually close to a courthouse, as in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
,
Leeds
Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...
,
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of t ...
,
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...
,
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
,
Cork and
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
.
In the
Beatles film, ''
A Hard Day's Night'',
Paul's grandfather (
Wilfrid Brambell) reports the arrest of
Ringo
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
to the studio by saying "The police have the poor lad in the Bridewell – he'll be pulp by now!"
See also
*
List of demolished buildings and structures in London
*
Tom Jones
Tom Jones may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer
* Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist
*''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...
*
Henry Fielding (1749)
Bollington Bridewell(1832)
References
External links
Bridewell Prison and Hospital, London archives
{{Prisons in London
Buildings and structures completed in 1515
Houses completed in the 16th century
Former buildings and structures in the City of London
Defunct prisons in London
Royal buildings in London
Royal residences in the United Kingdom
1855 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Demolished prisons
Buildings and structures demolished in 1863