A photograph of Millbank Prison

I rarely wander very far from my own street on this blog, let alone north of the river, but I was inspired to look into the history of Millbank Prison again yesterday after taking part in Walk London's free, guided Millbank, MI5 and MI6 walk.

Millbank Prison (or Millbank Penitentiary as it is was originally called) opened in 1816 and closed in 1890.

For at least part of its history it was a holding prison for prisoners before they were shipped off to the colonies. The 1850 Handbook of London reported: "Every male and female convict sentenced to transportation in Great Britain is sent to Millbank previous to the sentence being executed. Here they remain about three months under the close inspection of the three inspectors of the prison, at the end of which time the inspectors report to the Home Secretary, and recommend the place of transportation. The number of persons in Great Britain and Ireland condemned to transportation every year amounts to about 4000".

One theory (among many) is that "Prisoner of Millbank" is where the word "pom" derives from.

The prison stood where the Tate Britain and the Chelsea College of Art and Design (the former Royal Army Medical College / Queen Alexandra's Medical Hospital buildings) now stand just downstream from Vauxhall Bridge on the "North" of the river (it's more like "West" at this point). You can still see the outline of some of the prison walls reflected in the alleys between the backs of the houses on Ponsonby Street and the Millbank Estate:

The prison was built to the "panopticon" prison design expounded by social reformer Jeremy Bentham in 1785. As Wikipedia explains, "The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the incarcerated being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the 'sentiment of an invisible omniscience'."

The result - a striking design of six pentagons within an octagonal wall - is rather iconic, as you can see from this photograph of it:

Yup, that's right, a PHOTOGRAPH.

It was taken from a balloon on the 9th May 1891 by early aviator Griffith Brewer and published in Strand magazine in a feature entitled ‘London from Aloft’.

An article last year in The London Journal entitled ‘One immense black spot’: aerial views of London 1784-1918 takes up the story:

As was often to be the case, the balloon flight – which took place on 9 May 1891 – was presented as an adventure, the camera being used to record the views from above “for those who will not easily be persuaded to practical balloonacy.”

In fact, it reads more like an extended advertisement for the latest Kodak ‘detective camera’.

The text described the flight from lift-off in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, to the landing some hours later near Newmarket. It is mainly concerned with what could be seen beneath the balloon, and in particular with what could be seen in the photographs illustrating the article.

The writer noted and described Millbank Prison in the sixth photograph to be taken, alongside other well-known landmarks rendered unfamiliar by height and therefore needing to be explained:

“The small round white things, near the prison, which look like iced birthday-cakes, are great gasometers; to the right of the picture the river is seen, with Lambeth, Westminster, Charing Cross, and Waterloo Bridges; the darker patch up the picture, on the left, where the smoke and mist begin to obscure the detail, is St James’s Park; on the south side of the river, St. Thomas’s Hospital may be discerned, by the foot of Westminster Bridge; and by the other end of the same bridge are the Houses of Parliament.”

Footnotes

Some other interesting things on Millbank Prison:

• Sarah Waters' very engrossing novel Affinity is set there (worth a read; she is one of my favourite authors. Fingersmith - also set in Victorian London - is probably the most fun).
• The Millbank Penitentiary: excavations at the Chelsea School of Art and Design
• Here's a rather ghoulish scene, the Millbank Prison's burial ground.