This week we’re looking at a very interesting dungeon of London: Millbank Prison. There is so much to say and so much that can be plugged into a Victoriana Adventure, I am only going to cover the construction and basic layout of Millbank this week. Next week, I’ll focus on life in Millbank and the history of the prison.
The overwhelming need for prison reforms in England lead the philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, to design a new kind of penitentiary. A place that could isolate inmates, busy them with hard work, and reform them back into society. Bentham invested and struggled to bring his idea to life, but it was only after his death the plans for Millbank prison became a reality.
Millbank’s construction started in 1812 and finished on 1821. The soggy plot of marsh land bought for the prison caused many delays and frustrations during construction. In 1816 part of the structure collapsed. Architect sand engineers cycled in and out of the project. The prison’s current architect, Smirke, solved the problem by laying a massive spread of concrete in the marsh to anchor the foundation. This solution allowed work to commence smoothly but it also doubled the prisons’ construction cost.
Millbank prison has a stunning geometric shape, like an industrial flower. The center of the flower is the prison’s circular chapel where prisoners came for service every morning. A small courtyard surrounds the chapel, separating it from the surrounding hexagonal three storey building. The hexagon contains all the administrative offices and workspaces necessary to run the prison, such as the chaplain’s office, the steward’s office, infirmary, manufacturing, laundries, bakery, and the governor’s office.
Six pentagons radiate from the hexagon like petals, containing three stories of prison cells. The three outermost corners of each Pentagon end with towers, used to keep watch and house water closets for each floor. Each pentagon encloses a large exercise yard with a watchtower in the center. Walls radiate from the watchtower dividing the exercise yard into five smaller plots. Beyond the six pentagons is a seventeen foot high octagonal wall.
Everything in the pentagonal cell blocks is designed to isolate the inmates from each other, and allow the minimum amount of guards to keep watch. Each cell is lit by a single high window and a gaslight, and a coat of whitewash helped brighten the cell. The window opens into the exercise yard, where a tower guard could keep an eye on prisoner’s silhouettes at any moment. Two doors (a thick wooden door to be locked at night, and a metal grill to allow ventilation during the day) separate the small cells from the long hallway lined with outward facing windows.
Furnishings were meager. Each cell had a washing tub (which doubled as a chair when a wooden cover was placed over it), and small table flap for study and eating, a hammock (or wooden cot) and bedding,
For much of its life, Millbank was the largest prison in London, and considered to be the most advanced prison in the world, but the condition of life inside Millbank is worth its own post. The real meat and juice for adventuring in Millbank Prison comes next Friday, but till then here are couple odd inspirations from this prison’s construction:
1 Philosopher, 1 Designer, 3 Architects
Soon after the land was cleared Bentham’s original design for the Millbank prison (the “Panopticon”) was abandoned. The Drawing Master of the Royal Military College, William Williams, won the architectural contest to find a new design. His plan was adapted by architect Thomas Hardwick, who resigned shortly after construction started in 1813. Hardwick was replaced by John Harvey, who in turn was dismissed and replaced by Robert Smirke. Smirke lead the project to constructions end in 1821.
This all means there is plenty of room for secret passageways and gaps in the plans. Which architect designed the secret room the prisoners are using to escape? Are there tunnels in the concrete deep in the marsh around the prison? Was that concrete really that expensive?
Magical Geometry
Hexagons Pentagons, and Octagons all working together to shut in London’s troubled masses. It all smells of hidden magic. In the world of Victoriana there could be any number of strange aetheric effects in a scientific prison. Jeremy Bentham himself said the Panopticon is "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example" . If that does not suggest some arcane effect at work, I don’t know what does.
Is it possible Bentham’s original idea of a single jailor watching the prisoners unwatched was carried to fruition? Are the inmates of a particular wing more docile at certain times of the day? Is all the living misery inside the prison generating an insidious power?
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