Below is merely The London Explorer’s own eye view of that journey, covering aspects of the historic route, but with my own distractions and observations along the way (detailed historic descriptions of the entire procession can be easily found elsewhere).
Newgate Prison
The original gaol was housed within Newgate itself, as far back as the 12th century. Newgate (previously known as The West Gate) already had a history stretching back to Roman London. The Prison, however, outlived the Gate, which was pulled down in 1767.
A separate prison – built between Newgate and the Old Bailey Sessions House – had existed in various incarnations since the middle ages and had been both burnt down, during the Great Fire of 1666; and destroyed at the hands of mob rule, during the Gordon Riots of 1780. Despite all of its re-buildings and ‘improvements’ it had always been a grim, disease ridden establishment and was eventually closed for good in 1880. The Central Criminal Courts, aka The Old Bailey, was built on its site in 1902.
It was from Newgate Prison that those condemned to hang by the neck (until dead) were taken to their place of execution, the Tyburn Gallows. Once at Tyburn these, soon to be former, Newgateers would inevitably dance the ’Newgate Hornpipe’ to the sounds of the roaring crowds, who lined the route in its entirety and literally swarmed to Tyburn in the tens of thousands.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Newgate Street
Public hangings at Tyburn were usually carried out on a Monday. The condemned, in their horse-drawn carts, some using their coffins as seats, would pass the Church immediately on leaving Newgate Prison. This would not be their first contact with the Church.
Between 1605-1744 they would already have met the Bellman of the Holy Sepulchre. As the church bells struck midnight on Sunday he would have walked through a tunnel connecting church and prison, eventually reaching the cells holding the condemned. Ringing his hand-bell before them he would then recite the following:
All you that are in the condemned hold do lie
Prepare you for tomorrow you shall die
Watch all and pray the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear
Examine well yourselves, in time repent
That you may not to eternal flames be sent
And when St Sepulchre’s bell tomorrow tolls
The Lord have mercy on your souls.
The Church itself has a pretty impressive history. The original of 1137 was improved in 1450, but burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. Sir Christopher Wren’s master mason rebuilt the church we see today. In 1633 John Smith had been buried here; that’s the John Smith who in 1607 had been rescued by Pocahontas during his expedition to the New World. If you hadn’t already guessed, St Sepulchre is also ‘the bells of Old Bailey’ in the nursery rhyme ‘Oranges & Lemons’.
The condemneds route from Newgate to Tyburn
Snow Hill
On passing the Church and travelling the short length of Newgate Street, the procession would then head down Snow Hill, where there was a bridge that crossed the Fleet River. Today Snow Hill is little used because we drive or walk across Holborn Viaduct, which bridges the old valley of The Fleet. But the Viaduct was not completed until 1869 (the entire building scheme also included Holborn Circus, parts of Charterhouse Street and St Andrews Street).
The only significant building in Snow Hill today is the Police Station, which stands on the site of the old Saracens Head coaching inn. In 1838 it was from The Saracens Head that Charles Dickens left for Yorkshire, whilst researching ‘Nicholas Nickleby’; and so it was from here that Nicholas Nickleby left for Yorkshire with Wackford Squeers, to take up his position at Dotheboy’s Hall.
Holborn and High Holborn
Once across The Fleet (which is now culverted and covered by Farringdon Street/Road and flows through a pipe into The Thames near Blackfriars Bridge) the unfortunates in their ramshackle carts proceed along the full length of Holborn and High Holborn.
It’s worth remembering that the entire route of this grotesque parade has drawn the crowds. They line the streets and fill its taverns, they cheer and jeer and gawp and shout as the condemned roll past them. It’s no coincidence that the entire day was known as Tyburn Fair – a good time had by all.
Holborn and High Holborn nowadays have very few buildings of any architectural merit facing the street. Impressive as it is, the old Prudential Assurance HQ post-dates the procession. The original building – of which very little remains – was built by Alfred Waterhouse in 1879 (hence the interior quadrangle being renamed Waterhouse Square) on the site of Furnival’s Inn.
Many Inn’s of Chancery, including Furnival’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, Barnard’s Inn and Staple Inn, would have faced onto Holborn during the period of the procession. The Inn’s of Chancery were established in the 14th & 15th centuries to train, house and carry out the functions of attorneys, who prepared writs for the King’s Courts (basically, solicitors not working within the Inn’s of Court; those who did would be the people we now call barristers – I’m being a bit inexact here, it’s complicated).
It’s these attorneys who basically made the English language what it is today. By shaping and creating uniformity in grammar and spelling they ensured that all Courts and all Inn’s, all attorneys and all judges, all defendants and all litigants came to understand each other. The establishment of The Law Society ended the individual functions of the Inn’s and by the early 19th century all had ceased to exist as before.
The Cittie of Yorke pub in High Holborn dates from 1430. No doubt its patrons would have partaken of the merriment and festivity of the procession.
The Church of St Giles-in-the-Fields, St Giles High Street
This church dedicated to St Giles, the patron saint of outcasts, appropriately marked the halfway point to Tyburn. Until 1539 the site had been a leper hospital, founded in 1101 by Queen Matilda, the Anglo-Saxon wife of Henry I. The original Church was built in 1623.
By the time that the procession between Newgate and Tyburn ceased in 1783 St Giles housed the most notorious slums – or rookeries – in all of London. For believers in psychogeography – which, as I understand it, is the unconscious emotional and/or pychological impact of places or environments through historic periods of time – case closed: lepers, the condemned, rookeries, arguably one of the sources of The Great Plague, St Giles never stood a chance.
St Giles was actually a parish of contrasts (as TV travel pundits might describe it). Its church was fine; the engraver of London Wenceslaus Hollar married here as did the actor David Garrick; the martyred Archbishop Oliver Plunkett was buried here and the children of Byron and Shelley were baptised here.
If the condemned of Tyburn Fair were not already comatose through being gifted many a flagon of ale by this point, a bequest going back to Queen Matilda for the parish to provide ‘cups of charity’ translated into more booze being flung their way. The official drivers of the condemned’s carts were obliged to turn down offers to imbibe, as they were ‘on the wagon’.
Marble Arch as seen with a London Cab Tour
Oxford Street (Tyburn Road)
This final stretch for those about to be hanged (pun intended) had been a route to and from the west since Roman times (the Via Trinovantica). The Tyburn River flowed across, and now underneath it, at the junction of todays Stratford Place and Davies Street. Although it was indeed the road to Oxford, it was because Edward Harley, the Earl of Oxford, owned the land to its north side that the name change from Tyburn Road occurred in 1739. The streets urban development took up most of the 18th century, which no doubt would have drawn even greater crowds to the Tyburn procession.
For shopaholics Oxford Street isn’t so much a hidden gem as a shiny great gaudy bauble. Gone but not forgotten, some of the stores past were record shops, such as the original HMV (where EMI producer George Martin first heard The Beatles demo) and Virgin Megastore. Other buildings along Oxford Street have musical connections too.
The original home of the Marquee Club was at No165 and long time landmark 100 Club continues its tradition for live music, most significantly jazz (and for a short time in the ‘70’s punk rock). Malcolm McLarens Glitterbest office was at No119 and George Martins Air Studios were above what is now Niketown/Top Shop. Jimi Hendrix died at the Cumberland Hotel in September 1970. At the western end of Oxford Street, The Cumberland overlooks Marble Arch.
Marble Arch (Tyburn)
The Marble Arch, which stands yards from the former gallows at Tyburn, famously stood outside Buckingham Palace between 1827-51, when it moved to its present position, allegedly because the royal coaches were too wide to pass through the arch. This story is also allegedly a load of old rubbish.
The Tyburn Gallows traded in their gory concern from 1196 (disputed) – 1783 (when hangings moved to outside Newgate Prison). Here’s some Tyburn trivia.
Between 40,000 – 60,000 people were executed here – that’s about 68-102 per year on average. Doesn’t sound too bad when put like that does it? Does it? Yes it does.
Tyburnia – the name given to the surrounding area – no longer used – especially what is now the Hyde Park Estate
Deadly Nevergreen – a nickname, obviously, for the destination, but not the gallows.
Tyburn Tree – the gallows, which were originally a tree, at Tyburn.
The Three Legged Mare – the hanging tree progressed to a gallows and then, in 1571, the notorious triangular gallows (three cross-beams) were erected. Up to eight victims could be hanged on each side, meaning up to 24 could be dispatched together (very rare).
When actually hanged, the condemned simply stood up in the cart, the noose was placed around their neck and then the horse whipped. As the horse bolted they would simply be left to hang (until dead, as mentioned before) – none of this modern ‘hangman’s drop’ malarky. In recognition of the horse’s pivotal role, the gallows became known as the Three Legged Mare – gallows humour exemplar.
Triple Tree – an alternative to the Three Legged Mare
Lord of the Manor of Tyburn – the hangman (no, perhaps this is gallows humour exemplar). He was allowed to keep the clothes of the executed to sell and also the rope, which he could also sell, for 6d an inch.
Tyburn Check/Tyburn String/Tyburn Piccadill/Tyburn Tiffany – slang for the hangman’s noose and rope
Tyburn Stretch – a hanging
To Preach at Tyburn Cross – to be hanged
To Dance the Tyburn Jig/Newgate Hornpipe – to be hanged
Tyburn Blossom – a budding young criminal (we’ve all known them)
Tyburn Face – to look miserable
Tyburn Collar (aka Newgate Fringe) – a beard worn below the collar
The Tyburn Walk – a pilgrimage held on the 1st Sunday of every May to commemorate the 105 Catholics martyred at Tyburn. One hundred yards or so from Marble Arch in Bayswater Road is the Tyburn Convent (est. 1902) home to an enclosed order of Benedictine Nuns.
The Tyburn Ghost 1678 – In the dead of night spirits were seen, one sitting on the cross-beam, its ‘neck awry’. The gallows inexplicably collapsed. They were re-built and then it was business as usual.
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