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As many readers of this blog know, I no longer work
in archaeology as my day job. These days, I’m to be found toiling away in the in
world IT. While I try to keep these two strands of my life apart, they do occasionally
conspire to entwine and entangle themselves. This is one such instance. We had
a pretty good year in 2013 and the management were keen to see some of that
passed back to the people on the ground. To this end, we had a ‘Rally for Good’
where the regular canteen of the Belfast office was transformed into a really
lovely restaurant and all the staff were treated to a three course meal – with
desert served up by the senior management tier. Each team were also given an
allowance to get out of the office and do something different - just a few
hours away to have some fun and make some memories. We chose to get to know our
city a bit better and go on a tour of the historic core and hinterlands of
Belfast.
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| Front façade of the gaol |
The central portion of the tour involved a visit to The Crumlin Road
Gaol. The building was designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, and
was constructed between 1843 and 1845 at a cost of £60,000. The design was
partially inspired by HM Prison Pentonville
(itself based on the design of Eastern State
Penitentiary, in Philadelphia, PA). The Crumlin Rd Gaol was, at the time of
its construction, one of the most advanced incarceration structures of its type
anywhere in the world. Today, it is the only surviving prison of the Victorian
period in Northern Ireland, and is a Grade A listed building. Our guide brought
us through the original reception area where detainees would have been received,
changed into prison uniforms, and examined by medical staff. From there we got
to see the rather claustrophobic tunnel, linking the gaol to the courthouse
across the road, replete with stories of riots and attempted breakouts. The
tour continued through the warden’s office and the organisational portion of
the building, given over to the management of the inmates. Our next step was
through a stout door and into the part of the prison known as The Circle. This
magnificent space, now restored to what it would have looked like in the 1800s,
was the hub of the prison, where four wings (A-D) met at a single point. From
here, the warden and a relatively small number of prison officers could observe
and control a much larger prison population. The first inmates – 106 men,
women, and children – arrived here in 1846. Initially, the prison was designed
to hold up to 550 people in individual cells of 12ft x 7ft (based on ‘The Separate System’),
though at certain times overcrowding was intense, with up to three people held
in each small cell.
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| Main internal entrance |
The original design of the prison did not include
the provision of a dedicated place for execution, and until 1901, these were
carried out on a gallows in the yard, in full view of the public. At the turn
of the century, work began on turning six prison cells into an execution suite.
In total, 11 of the 17 people executed in the prison died here. It remains – no
matter what your view on capital punishment – a quiet, deeply poignant place.
The last execution held here was of Robert McGladdery, in
1961, for the murder of Pearl Gamble. Other executed criminals included Simon
McGeown, in 1922, for the murder of seven-year-old Maggie Fullerton on
Cavehill. The longest serving hangman was Thomas Pierrepoint
(uncle to the much more famous hangman Albert Pierrepoint),
who carried out six executions in the period from 1928 to 1942. The gaol closed
in 1996 and, following restoration, has been open to visitors since 2012.
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| Internal courtyard |
I hope you enjoy these photos and, if you’re not
from here, please consider coming to Northern Ireland when you plan your next
trip away. On the other hand, if you’re lucky enough to live here already, get
up and get out and get to see some of this place!
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| Upper hallway of the administrative portion of the building |
If you like these photos, you may also enjoy a
selection of 3D images (anaglyphs) of the gaol to give a greater sense of depth
and space within and about the building. To see these correctly, you must have
a pair of red/blue glasses. You can buy
a pair or make
your own.
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| Prisoner reception - largely unchanged since the 19th century |
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| The tunnel linking the gaol to the courthouse across the road |
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| Wrought iron work in The Circle |
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| Panoramic overview of The Circle |
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| A view down the wing from The Circle |
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| A view back along the wing |
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A cell. dressed to show how it would have looked
when the gaol first opened |
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A padded cell. A quiet reminder of how much our treatment of
mental health issues has evolved |
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| An example of prison art from around the time it closed in 1996 |
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| The extra large 'condemned cell' |
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| The execution chamber, where 11 people their ends |
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The mechanics of execution are somewhat morbid, but no less fascinating for that. The cords on
pulleys are attached to weights. These ensure that the trapdoors snap open & do not bounce back,
hitting the prisoner and slowing their descent or pushing them from a vertical drop - both of which
may have added to the time the prisoner took to die. The four dangling pads were to muffle the
distinctive sound of the trapdoor opening and to prevent it being heard around the prison. |
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A replica coffin stands in the adjacent room where the prisoner
would have been examined and pronounced dead. The item in the
background is a flogging rack. |
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| Panoramic view across the yard |
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| Another external view of the gaol |
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| Across the road, the burnt out shell of the Crumlin Rd Courthouse shows how neglect and vandalism can put our shared heritage in grave danger of loss |
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