Horsemonger Lane Gaol

Dickens Walk in Southwark. www.walksoflondon.co.uk/31/index.shtml

Newington Gardens is the site of the former Horsemonger Lane Gaol, which stood here until 1878. Dickens came to the gaol on 13th November 1849, to see the public execution of Frederick and Maria Manning – a husband and wife who had conspired to murder Mrs Manning’s young lover. Dickens had come specifically to watch the behaviour of the crowd, and was disgusted by the ‘wickedness and levity’, ‘the brutal mirth or callousness’ that he witnessed. In a subsequent letter to The Times he concluded, ‘I do not believe that any community can prosper where such a scene of horror and demoralization… is presented at the doors of good citizens…’

See where this picture was taken. [?]