Bridewell Palace plaque. Photograph by sleepymyf

Bridewell Palace, London, was originally a residence of Henry VIII, and later became a poorhouse and prison.

Similar institutions throughout England, Ireland, and Canada also borrowed the name Bridewell. Nowadays, the term frequently refers to a city’s main detention facility, usually in close proximity to a courthouse, as in Nottingham, Leeds, Gloucester, Bristol, Dublin and Cork.

Freethinker writer Peter Annet was sent to Bridewell Prison for one year’s hard labour. He was also sentenced to Newgate prison for one month for blasphemous remarks on the five books of Moses.

The Prison was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777. The prison was extended and rebuilt many times, and remained in use for over 700 years, from 1188 to 1902.

Visiting

The original gate house is incorporated as the front of an office block at 14 New Bridge Street, including a relief portrait of Edward VI; The main site area of the school/ palace stretches from there southwards along the west-side of the street to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Unilever Building, (built 1931), which stands at the corner of ‘Watergate’ the previous river entrance to the precincts, off the Fleet-Thames confluence.

Also see…

• Wikipedia article on Bridewell Palace

Newgate

Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London.

Freethinker writer Peter Annet was sentenced to Newgate prison for one month for blasphemous remarks on the five books of Moses. He was also sentenced to be put in the pillories at Charing Cross and at the Royal Exchange, as well as being fined and sent to Bridewell Prison for one year’s hard labour, and to pay further sureties for future good behaviour.

The Prison was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777. The prison was extended and rebuilt many times, and remained in use for over 700 years, from 1188 to 1902.

Visiting

Newgate Prison no longer exists but was located on the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, in the City of London.

Also see…

• Wikipedia article on Newgate Prison

Tower of London. By Elizabeth Lutgendorff

Her Majesty’s Royal Fortress and Tower or the Tower of London as it is most commonly known, is a dominating and impressive castle in the heart of London.  With a long history, it has held many prisoners including Charles Bradlaugh.

Bradlaugh’s request to affirm the MP’s oath was rejected by Parliament and he was  sent to the tower 1880 when he tried to take his seat.

After the defeat of Harold at the Battle of Hastings, William I began is subjugation of the largest city: London.  Near the remaining roman ruins, the White Tower was first begun in the 1070s.  Continued construction, with more towers and the curtain walls would proceed through to the thirteenth century.

The Tower has held many famous prisoners within its walls: Edward I, Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh the future Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Jane Grey, Guy Fawkes and the Kray Twins (the last prisoners at the Tower).

It also holds some of the mortal remains of those executed at the Tower in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincular.

One of the longest and unbroken ceremonies in the UK, if not the world, is the Ceremony of the Keys.  The ceremony makes sure that the palace is safe and secure every evening.  It continued throughout the Blitz, although it was sometimes delayed due to bombardment.

Graffiti from the Tower of London

Today the Tower is one of the historic royal palaces and can be visited by the general public.  The historical graffiti of those held in the tower of prisoners can still be viewed.  As well, the Crown Jewels are held in the Jewel Tower.

Visiting

The Tower is open to the public every day, times vary depending on the time of year.  The nearest tube station is Tower Hill but there are also many bus routes and the Thames Clipper.

Also see…

• Historic Royal Palaces:  The Tower of London

Brixton Prison. Photograph by sarflondondunc

Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Brixton is a prison in London, built in 1819.

Bertrand Russell was imprisoned here in 1961 for his part in a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demonstration in London.

Visiting

The prison is still in use and so not open to the general public.

Also see…

• Brixton Prison on Wikipedia
• Her Majesty’s Prison Service

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

A number of prominent humanists and secularists have sat in each houses. One of them – Charles Bradlaugh – was the last person to be  imprisoned in a cell in the Palace’s Clock Tower.

House of Commons

Henry Broughton stood in parliament via the pocket borough of Camelford controlled by a Whig aristocrat 1810-1812. He returned in 1815 via another pocket boorough, Winchelsea.

William Johnson Fox intermittently represented Oldham in Parliament as a Liberal from 1847 to 1862. As a supporter of the Anti-Corn-Law movement he won celebrity as an impassioned orator and journalist.

John Stuart Mill as Member of Parliament for City and Westminster 1865-1866. In 1866 he became the first person in Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote.

Charles Bradlaugh was Member of Parliament for Northampton 1880-1891 after a long struggle to take his seat (see below).

Viscount Morley was Liberal Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne 1883 – 1895 and later Montrose Burghs.

John M Robertson was Liberal Member of Parliament for Tyneside 1906 – 1918.

Clement Attlee was Labour Member of Parliament for Limehouse 1922 – 1955. He was Prime Minster 1945 – 1951.

House of Lords

Henry Broughton was given a peerage in1830 and became Lord Chancellor in Lord Grey’s new Whig government.

Viscount Morley was a peer between 1910 (where he served as Lord President of the Council) until the outbreak of war in 1914.

Bertrand Russell was the 3rd Earl Russell 1931-1970.

Clement Attlee sat in the Lords from 1955 until his death in 1967.

In 1958 Russell and Attlee were amongst a group of notables to establish the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in private by consenting adults, a reform which was voted through parliament nine years later.

Charles Bradlaugh – fighting for atheists to take their place in the commons

Charles Bradlaugh – who in 1866 helped to establish the National Secular Society – tried several times to be elected to represent Northampton in Parliament. He was eventually elected in 1880, but as he was not a Christian he asked for permission to affirm rather the oath of office. The Speaker of the House of Commons refused this request and Bradlaugh was expelled from Parliament. William Gladstone, the Prime Minister, supported Bradlaugh’s right to affirm, but he had upset a lot of people with his views on Christianity, the monarchy and birth control and when the issue was put before Parliament, MPs voted to support the Speaker’s decision to expel him.

Bradlaugh now mounted a national campaign in favour of atheists being allowed to sit in the House of Commons. Bradlaugh gained some support from some Nonconformists but he was strongly opposed by the Conservative Party and the leaders of the Anglican and Catholic clergy. When Bradlaugh attempted to take his seat in Parliament in June 1880, he was arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Benjamin Disraeli, leader of the Conservative Party, warned that Bradlaugh would become a martyr and it was decided to release him.

On 26th April, 1881, Charles Bradlaugh was once again refused permission to affirm. William Gladstone promised to bring in legislation to enable Bradlaugh to do this, but this would take time. Bradlaugh was unwilling to wait and when he attempted to take his seat on 2nd August he was once forcibly removed from the House of Commons. Bradlaugh and his supporters organised a national petition and on 7th February, 1882, he presented a list of 241,970 signatures calling for him to be allowed to take his seat. However, when he tried to take the Parliamentary oath, he was once again removed from Parliament.

Gladstone’s Affirmation Bill was discussed by Parliament in the spring of 1883. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Manning, head of the Catholic Church, argued against the right of atheists to be MPs and when the vote was taken in May 1883, the Affirmation Bill was defeated. In 1884 Bradlaugh was once again elected to represent Northampton in the House of Commons. He took his seat and voted three times before he was excluded. He was later fined £1,500 for voting illegally.

Bradlaugh decided to try again to take the oath on 13th January, 1886. The new Speaker, Sir Arthur Wellesley Peel, did not object, arguing that he had to authority to interfere with the oath-taking.

The ‘umbrella’ British Humanist Association

In 1963 the Rationalist Press Association and the Ethical Union decided to sponsor an ‘umbrella’ British Humanist Association (a precursor of the actual British Humanist Association) and its inaugural meeting took place in 1963 in the House of Commons with Sir Julian Huxley, A. J. Ayer, and Baroness Wootton among those present.

Visiting

Parliament is open to all members of the UK public and overseas visitors. You can attend debates and watch committee hearings, tour the buildings or climb the famous Clock Tower and see Big Ben.

Also see…

• www.parliament.uk
• epolitix.com: From Attlee to Adam Smith

Bristol Gaol

Atheist Charles Southwell was imprisoned in Bristol Gaol for blasphemous libel in 1842.

Southwell had a written an article in his periodical, the Oracle of Reason,  criticising the Bible. For this he was sentenced to a year in Bristol Gaol and fined £100, an enormous sum. He served the full sentence and was released on 6 February 1843.

While in prison he wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘Paley refuted in his own words’ and  probably wrote the autobiographical ‘The Confessions of a Freethinker’.

The gaol was closed in 1883 and largely demolished in 1898.

Visiting

All that remains to mark the site now is the  granite front entrance on Cumberland Road, Bristol. It resembles a small castle complete with its rusting mock portcullis and a small section of outer wall.

Also see…

• Bristol Gaol on BBC Online