Condemned cell, Newgate

Illustration from page 579 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny, showing a cell for condemned prisoners at Newgate. Newgate had two such cells which were about double the size of an ordinary cell. "The wretched men confined in these are watched day and night by a warder. The furniture consists of a wooden bedstead about nine inches in height from the floor, supplied with the following bedding: a mattress, three blankets, a pair of sheets, and a pillow, a table larger than in the ordinary cells, and a settle about six feet in length." Condemned prisoners were not allowed knives, food "being cut up into small pieces in the kitchen before it is brought to the prisoner; this is to prevent his laying violent hands on himself."