Clerkenwell Crime and Punishment

Turbulent centuries of monasteries, vengeance, courthouses, prisons, murder, social reformers, a bomb plot and more….

Clerkenwell lies just outside the old City, originally the location of the monastic houses from the late 1100s. When Henry VIII siezed these in the 1500s, some occupants met grim fates. Over the following centuries, the population increased greatly as London grew and people came looking for work, and in turn the area became overcrowded, crime-ridden and squalid. As it lay outside the City’s direct jurisdiction (part of Middlesex), the area attracted radicals, rebels and criminals. The local system of magistrates, judges and parishes in turn built prisons, courthouses and workhouses.

This walk explores the nature of crime and the various punishments meted out over the centuries in this fascinating area.

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