Newcastle Gaol was a custodial building in Carliol Square in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, England. The building, which was the principal prison for the local area, was demolished in 1925.

History

Newcastle Gaol was commissioned to replace the New Gate Gaol which dated from the 14th century. By 1820, that prison was described by the grand jury at Newcastle

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

"as being out of repair and inconvenient, insufficient, and insecure." The site they chose for the new prison was Carliol Croft, a piece of open land in the east part of central Newcastle. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

, Robert Bell, on 4 June 1823. It was designed by John Dobson in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone at a cost of £35,000 and was completed in February 1828. The design involved a tall entrance tower with a gateway, behind which there was an elliptical main prison building with six radiating wings in the style of a

panopticon The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be o ...

. Following the implementation of the

Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 The Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c.24) received Royal Assent on 29 May 1868, putting an end to public executions for murder in the United Kingdom. The act required that all prisoners sentenced to death for murder be execute ...

, which abolished the practice of

public execution A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose ...

s, John William Anderson, who had been convicted of murdering his wife, became the first person to be executed inside the prison in December 1875. In order to increase the capacity of the prison, the radiating wings were demolished in 1858 to make way for a single four-storey prison block. Over-crowding increased in 1881, after Morpeth Gaol closed, and, by 1890, the building was accommodating 300 prisoners, three times as many as it was designed for, in very cramped conditions. Notable prisoners included the suffragette,

Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (12 February 1869 – 2 May 1923), usually known as Constance Lytton, was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control. Sh ...

, who was tried and convicted of disorderly behaviour after she threw a stone at a ministerial car during a visit to Newcastle by the

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

, in October 1909. She was sentenced to one month in the prison and was subjected to

force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into t ...

while on

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

John Dickman John Alexander Dickman (17 May 1864 – 10 August 1910) was an Englishman hanged for murder. He was convicted of the murder of John Innes Nisbet, which took place on a train travelling between Newcastle railway station and Alnmouth railway stat ...

, who was convicted of murdering a wages courier on a train, became the last person to be executed in the prison, in August 1910. The constrained nature of the site meant there was very little room for expansion, and the prison was demolished in April 1925. The site was subsequently occupied by Telephone House, a structure commissioned to accommodate the Newcastle telephone exchange.

References

{{Prisons in North East England Government buildings completed in 1828 Buildings and structures in Newcastle upon Tyne Prisons in Tyne and Wear Buildings and structures demolished in 1925 Demolished buildings and structures in Tyne and Wear