An execution outside Newgate Prison

A public execution in nineteenth-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 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.

There is a larger, more finished version of this subject also in the Museum of London, ID Number A9267.