In 1820, a group of English radical activists plotted to kill the entire British government while they were sat down to dinner in central London. The Cato Street Conspiracy – so-called from the place where they met to plot – was uncovered and the ringleaders executed in a public and grisly manner. One of those…
Beneath what is now the London School of Economics lies the remains of a “molly house” – a gay bar basically – once located in the long demolished warren of streets that made up Clare Market. The White Swan pub was on the corner of Vere Street, which you can no longer find. This drinking…
LGBT life in London during the Bridgerton era was surprisingly open but dangerous as a court case from the time reveals
In 1750 three judges busily sentencing some criminals to death caught jail fever off them – and died of typhus a little while later
A day trip to Georgian London could have involved going to see a prisoner put to death or watching a live amputation by a well known surgeon
Another blog post in my current series on Newgate prison – demolished over a hundred years ago and replaced by the Old Bailey court building By the end of the nineteenth century, if you committed a murder north of the Thames – you would face the hangman at Newgate. If you committed it south of…
This is one of a series of blog posts about the once notorious Newgate prison that stood on the site of today’s Old Bailey George Cruikshank was a caricaturist who drew the illustrations for the books of Charles Dickens. He was also vehemently opposed to the death penalty, following something he saw outside Newgate prison….
In 1743 two LGBT men were hanged in London for the crime of sodomy and as Tony McMahon discovers, being outwardly gay was a very dangerous business
Up until and including the 19th century, teenagers were hanged in London for all kinds of crimes including theft and counterfeiting
