#pentonville

[pilgrim1975]

Reginald Woolmington, saved from the rope by a ‘Golden Thread.’

When farm labourer and killer Reginald Woolmington entered the dock at Taunton Assizes it was with a heavy heart. The shotgun killing of his estranged wife Violet at her mother’s home on December 10, 1934 looked like an open and shut case. She had left him because of his possessive, controlling and abusive treatment of her. He had stolen a shotgun from his employer, that much had been proved. So…

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1916 – Letter from Roger Casement to Margaret Gavan Duffy.

To dear Margaret Gavan Duffy – From Ruari. in my last cell — 2 Augt 1916 9 p.m. Thank you dear friend and Moya and Dana and Eva and all the fond ones. Tomorrow St Stephen’s Day I die the death I sought and may God forgive the mistakes and receive the intent — Ireland’s freedom. Ruari

[w3bb3n]

End Prisons, HMP Pentonville February 2024, North London

[burned-lariat]

The Mind of Andrew Cain (2023, colorized)

[baited-beth]

Once again I am annoyed with a piece of fictional media for getting London geography wrong.

This author is usually spot on but he keeps referring to a very specific location on Aldersgate Street as being in the London Borough of Finsbury. Is is, and has always been, in the city of London. Not only this, but the London Borough of Finsbury has not existed for almost 60 years.

[martyncrucefix]

'The Man Overstanding' - on Raymond Antrobus' 'All The Names Given'

Genuinely acclaimed first books can be hard to follow up. Raymond Antrobus’ The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society Choice and won the Ted Hughes Award and the Rathbone’s Folio Prize in 2019. I reviewed the book that year as one of the five collections shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis First Collection Prize. In many ways it was a conventional book of poems…

[roscoe-conkling]

Diplomat, human rights crusader, and Irish nationalist Roger Casement was convicted of treason by the British government in World War I for attempting to solicit military aid from Germany for the Easter Rising, a planned Irish insurrection against British rule during Easter Week, 1916. Sentenced to death, support for clemency evaporated when diaries surfaced alleged to be his, revealing him to be homosexual. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London on August 3, 1916. Casement is revered in Ireland today as a martyr for Irish independence, with buildings and streets named in his honor, and monuments to his memory.

[inmate62763]

HMP life in British prisons. Entering one of the main wings of the prison at HMP Pentonville Prison in London, UK.

Someone asked me on here a few days ago how the numbering of the tiers work on the wings in UK prisons. Well, in most UK prisons they are called "landings" and not tiers and they are not classed as ground floor, first floor, second floor etc'. They are referred to usually by number which won't always make sense when you first enter a UK prison, so ground floor is 1, first landing is 2, second landing is 3 etc' If you disregard the use of the term "ground floor" then it makes more sense.

For instance when I first went into prison at HMP Liverpool I was instructed by the duty head wing officer that I was allocated to a cell on "the ones", now me being new to how British prisons worked I just assumed he meant the first landing / first floor so up one flight of steps but no if I had have been allocated there I would have been on "the twos". As I was allocated on "the ones" it meant I was on the ground floor level of cells. I realise I probably haven't explained that very well or clearly but it's the best I can by text.

[leliest]

Are you really that obvious?

I don't think we talk about the deleted scene from hlv enough guys

this here, where Magnussen is being even more disgusting than usual but also- the flowers

first thing he points out is literally the bouquet of green carnations from NSY. But it gets worse. The last mentioned bouquet is a "black wrath from C-Block Pentonville". Do you know who was a prisoner in Pentonville, in Block C, in 1895? Oscar fucking Wilde. I'm currently a bit mindblown over this, because this is textbook, seriously.

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 21 June 1972, around 150 workers at the Briant Colour Printing works on Old Kent Road, London, took over their workplace after it was announced the firm was going into voluntary liquidation. The workers moved in food and bedding, and restarted production under workers' control. In addition to commercial printing jobs to make money, the workers printed their own newsletter, and printed numerous materials to support other groups of workers elsewhere, for example the Pentonville 5 group of imprisoned dockworkers. Negotiations also began with prospective buyers to try to retain a level of workers' control in the future, but these fell through in May 1973, and the plant was eventually bought by a Peter Bentley, who on July 3 rehired an undetermined number of the remaining occupying workers. He subsequently closed the plant in November 1973, making the last 50 workers redundant, and employed security guards to ensure they could not occupy the plant again. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9402/Briant-Colour-Printing-work-in https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=648031980703354&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[grandmaster-anne]

11 May 2023 Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, President, the City and Guilds of London Institute, attended a Reception at HM Prison Pentonville. 📸: Kirstie Donnelly MBE

[thegreatobsesso]

Happy new year, you guys wanna read something sad? :D

I'm watching snow in my pajamas and I feel joy. And writing this only amplified it. We all joke about loving angst but I honestly have a condition where breaking my characters' hearts on the page brings me genuine happiness. Love these guys! (And you guys 💙)

---------------------------

Milo

This is a new low. He watches himself give into it without resistance and dials the number for Pentonville.  It occurs to him after he’s punched in the numbers that it’s the middle of the night, but apparently that doesn’t matter when the staff practically work for the inmate in question.

“It’s late,” Octavius’s voice states flatly. “What do you want?”

And it’s everything, because he still took the call. Nobody could make him do that. That knowledge steadies him. “I needed to hear your voice,” Milo admits. No room for secrets between them now, after all. 

“Well, you’ve just heard it, you insatiable masochist. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

He sounds so smug, so much like himself. “I love you.”

“And?”

He knows better than to expect those supposed magic words to have an effect now. Saying them relieves some of the pressure in his chest, but they won’t change anything else, and they don’t really matter. His hands shake.

“And I need you to talk to me.” He bites back bile. “Or, I just, I need you to not be so far away. I need to know you’re here.” 

He trips over the next part, because it’s too familiar and he’s not trying to be manipulative or coy. But he says it anyway, laying himself open. “Please.”

There’s a terrible beat of silence as he waits for a hollow laugh, a jab at his suffering. He doesn’t expect the quiet reply. 

“What’s wrong?”

And it’s just… Milo’s not stupid. He’s fully aware Octavius’s only concern is that something else will get Milo before he can, like if Milo’s about to tell him he’s got stage four cancer, or whatever. But even if that’s the only reason he cares, he still cares.

“Everything,” Milo gulps. It’s melodramatic as hell but maybe his voice cracking apart lends credence to the hyperbole. “Nothing’s the right color anymore. I don’t know what to do with myself, not feeling anything is the only way I can survive and it’s like one step off the path and feeling one thing, that’s all it’ll take to break me, and it’s like I don’t understand how anything works anymore, and everything I thought made sense was just a relaxing lie. And what’s real is, is too sharp, too painful, and I just miss you. I miss you. And I want back what we had, in the moments where I could just forget the investigation and let you touch me. I just want that back and I know I can’t have it ever again.”

Filters abandoned him long ago. He’s just talking now and it’s very easy because he has nothing to lose, and he’s vaguely wondering if Octavius has already hung up and the Pentonville phone system doesn’t have the courtesy of a dial tone.

“I miss you too,” Octavius says, flat and factual and apparently still on the line. “It doesn’t change what I’m going to do.”

Milo drags a hand over his own face miserably, rubbing crust from his eyes. “I know.”

“It’s not enough to save you.”

“I know.”

“So what do you want from me?”

“I told you-”

He cuts himself off before he starts shouting hysterically and waking Meg. The thing is, he’s an addict and this is nothing but a fix. He’s not solving any of his problems tonight, he’s not making anything better for himself, he’s just… asking for a tiny dose, just enough to make it till tomorrow.

“I said, I just want to hear your voice,” he manages, hanging onto his sanity by a thread. “I know you hate me, I know you’re gonna kill me, just please, please, talk to me for a minute.”

A measured, irritated sigh. “Milo, this is pathetic.”

Of course it is, but there’s something in the observation and the tone that feels - god help him, it makes him nostalgic. “Yeah. I get it, I know that too, trust me. I'm in a state right now and dignity isn’t my highest concern.” He pauses and takes in an actual breath that satisfies his body for the first time in hours. “How’s the food?”

“Excuse me?”

“The prison food. How is it?”

There’s a sound on the other end of the line that Milo can’t begin to quantify how well he’s able to translate, how achingly familiar it is and how many words it contains in its simplicity. It’s barely a breath but it says I’ll indulge you, you ridiculous man and you can make me do anything when you turn your charms on me and I love you in spite of myself.

“I’m sure it’s abysmal, but I can’t speak to it. Everything I eat is brought in from the outside at my request. Surely you don’t think I’d let them serve me cafeteria slop?”

And he laughs. He laughs because of course a rich white-collar criminal like Octavius doesn’t have to eat normal prison food, and because objectively someone who’s done such awful things should have to eat canned mushy peas but Milo's glad he doesn't because he loves him and that’s just stupid because he’s terrible but Milo loves him anyway, despite everything, despite his own desire to live. 

It’s just another minute of pointless minutiae before they hang up but Milo sleeps better than he has in weeks. 

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✨ WIP intro

🔖 tag list: @winterandwords // @foxboyclit //@revenantlore

@space-writes // @indecentpause // @words-after-midnight

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📝 all posts from WIP: gay crime bdsm story

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1866 – Birth of nationalist poet and writer, Alice Milligan, in Omagh, Co Tyrone.

Alice Milligan was born and brought up as a Methodist in Gortmore, near Omagh, Co Tyrone. Alice was one of eleven children and from 1877 to 1887 attended Methodist College, Belfast, after which she completed a teacher-training course. Together with her father she wrote a political travelogue of the north of Ireland in 1888, Glimpses of Erin. She wrote her first novel, A Royal Democrat, in…

[stephensmithuk]

"We should swing in a row at Newgate in six weeks’ time!"

CW for discussions of the mechanics of capital punishment.

Newgate was one of the places in London that you least wanted to end up for most of the second millennium. Located near the "New Gate" of the City Walls, it began life in 1188 as a collection of cells to hold those awaiting trial.

It had a rather long and dark history, with many famous inmates (such as Daniel Defoe and of particular relevance here, Oscar Wilde spent some time), quite a lot of abuses and generally unpleasant conditions. The prison of this period dated from 1782, the third on the site. The second had been almost finished in 1780 when it was set on fire during the Gordon Riots, an anti-Catholic outbreak of disorder that saw 300-700 deaths. Charles Dickens used it as the backdrop for Barnaby Rudge, one of his lesser-known novels, possibly due to the limited number of adaptations. Other works of his set there included Oliver Twist, where Fagin spends his final night.

It was attached to the criminal courts colloquially known as "the Old Bailey" after the street is was on. By 1891, it had become the Central Criminal Court, dealing with high-profile cases from across England.

Many people only left Newgate for their meeting with the hangman. In 1783, London's gallows were moved from Tyburn to the front of Newgate prison. Until 1868 (three years after the opening of the first bit of the Underground!), these executions would still be done in public. Prisoners would take their final walk along Dead Man's Walk, over the quicklime-covered bodies of the previously executed under the flagstones, before coming out to see the crowds of spectators, looking forward to the show. It was quite common in the Bloody Code days for pickpockets to operate at the executions of people hanging for theft. The nearby Magpie & Stump pub would hire out upper rooms for those wanting a better view and also send the condemned a final pint.

After the end of public executions, the gallows were moved inside the facility. From 1881, a dedicated execution shed was built where up to four people could be hanged at once, although that only happened on one occasion, so a triple execution would have been perfectly possible. And "by once", I mean at the same time; the hangman would open the trapdoor so all were dropped into eternity at the same time.

There was a spectator's gallery outside for the press and official witnesses - their view was restricted so all they would see of the actual execution was the condemned drop into the pit below and the rope go taught. The prison was also used to train new executioners.

The 1889 creation of the London County Council moved Wandsworth prison and its gallows into London from Surrey; both sites would be used for hangings.

By 1891, the British government had clamped down on some of the dodgier practices engaged in by hangmen at this point after the Aberdare Committee of 1886. Like going around the local pubs the evening before and showing off the rope to the drinkers. Or selling said rope and the dead person's clothes to souvenir hunters after the fact. Or charging people to act as extra assistants at the execution, including one actual baronet. A standard "table of drops" was also set up, although not always followed initially.

In 1902, the prison was closed down and demolished in 1904. A rebuilt and expanded Central Criminal Court, opened in 1907 covers the old site - some of the old walls form part of it - still being known as the "Old Bailey". Trials are open for the public to attend, subject to a strict security check and an outright ban on taking photos inside.

Some of the remains of the hanged were removed and placed in a plot at the City of London cemetery.

The gallows moved to Pentonville and remained there, with the last execution occurring at that site in 1961, capital punishment ending three years later.

The Magpie & Stump remains to this day, heavily rebuilt. I might go there for lunch at some point.

A door from the prison is in the collection of the Museum of London, but the main site closed in 2022, with the facility moving to a new location in the Smithfield area that is due to open in 2026.

The six weeks reference? That was how quickly you could go from arrested to hanged in England.

[burned-lariat]

"Saving your life could be a waste of time" is really something, just a wonderful line to say to someone you supposedly love. Bitch.

[dewitty1]

You can buy Sirius Black’s Islington home now

Number 12, Grimmauld Place, ancestral home of Sirius Black, is up for sale. Okay, it’s a well-presented grade II-listed Georgian flat in Claremont Square, Pentonville, N1. 

The iconic address, HQ of the main resistance to the dark forces of Voldemort, was a filming location featuring in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry of course, and Gary Oldman as homeowner Sirius, and is available for £385,000. The light and airy leasehold first-floor period property boasts access to a rear garden, with studio, separate kitchen and bathroom, and is mid-terrace. Plus, if entry to Hogwarts is not available to you, then the Gower School and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School are virtually on your doorstep.

The wizardly pied-à-terre is also conveniently close to King’s Cross St Pancras station for when you need to catch the train from platform 9¾ (or hop on a Eurostar to Paris). It’s pretty minute, though, so probably not suitable for large pets or house elves.

More details

Edit-it was sold the minute it went on the market, that's how good the price is...