An execution outside Newgate Prison

A public execution in 19th century London was guaranteed to bring out a large crowd of curious onlookers.

In Rowlandson's drawing, people sit on every available vantage point, including rooftops, to get a glimpse of the condemned, two men and a woman, who are already dangling from the scaffold. A street-seller on the left has wasted no time and is already selling the Last Dying Speeches of the victims. In the foreground can also be seen a seller of street food, women and men fraternising and squabbling, and other London figures, often parodied by Rowlandson.

At this time, Newgate Prison built by George Dance the Younger in the 1770s was the city's chief prison and from 1783 public executions were held there regularly on Monday mornings. This continued until 1868 when public executions were abolished and Newgate Prison itself was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century.In the background is the mid-fifteenth century church of St Sepulchre with the rounded headed windows put in during the restoration of 1790.

There is a smaller, sketchier version of this subject also in the Museum of London, ID Number 30.48/2, one of several versions of this scene.