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Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787 Design not as executed, contract drawings for crenellated design, revised designs and working drawings (37)
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Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787 Design not as executed, contract drawings for crenellated design, revised designs and working drawings (37)
Notes
NOTES ON [SM D4/3/35], [SM D4/D3/36], [SM D4/3/3] and [SM D4/3/14]
The contract drawings show an 11-bay, heavily rusticated west front of three storeys with a three-bay centre of four storeys that is the Keeper's House. The centre and single end bays are broken slightly forward and crowned by tablet-like 'crenellations'. This west range fronting Giltspur Street houses the Sheriff's Offices on the ground floor with above, the Keeper's House in the centre and, on either side, the paying debtors' apartments, some single and some double, varying in size from 18 by 16 to 18 by 10 feet, each with a fireplace.
Behind the west range a continuous perimeter wall runs south, east and north. Within this walled compound are nine buildings (including the west range), each with its own walled yard; five are single storey - for the men and women felons and the men and women night charges. The west range, common male debtors, common female debtors and the Chapel (built over cells) were all of three storeys. It seems that the source for the planning of the Compter lies with John Howard (Kalman pp.102-03). His plan for an 'Ideal County Jail' (The State of the Prisons, 1784, plate 1) shows four irregular courts, each for a different class of prisoner. Again, as Howard recommended, Dance placed some of the wards over an arcaded ground floor so as to improve the ventilation and (in these contract drawings) arranged the individual cells for the felons against the perimeter walls. As executed, Dance improved ventilation and security by making some of these buildings free-standing ([SM D4/3/37], [SM D4/3/38], [SM D4/3/39], [SM D4/3/29], [SM D4/3/30] and [SM D4/3/31]).
The contract drawings were agreed on 27 March and signed by the contractors on 16 June 1787. However, some changes were made to the design in about September of the same year.
NOTES ON THE HANDS
Some of the drawings are by Dance, that is, [SM D4/3/32], [SM D4/3/35], [SM D4/3/36], [SM D4/3/3], [SM D4/3/14], [SM D4/3/24], [SM D4/3/11], [SM D4/3/8], [SM D4/3/13], [SM D4/3/16] and [SM D4/3/6]. The majority - [SM D4/3/2], [SM D4/3/37], [SM D4/3/38], [SM D4/3/39], [SM D4/3/29], [SM D4/3/30], [SM D4/3/25], [SM D4/3/10], [SM D4/3/7], [SM D4/3/12], [SM D4/3/27], [SM/3/28], [SM D4/3/9], [SM D4/3/15], [SM D4/3/19], [SM D4/3/20], [SM D4/3/22], [SM D4/3/4] - are in the same office hand, called here 'curly office hand' and characterised by, for example, very neat cursive titles and labels and a method of marking dimensions with dotted lines, arrows and round 'curly' numerals, and a slightly more vivid palette.
Location of drawings
The Giltspur Street Compter was opened in 1791 and of the 37 drawings (a few dated 1787) in the Soane Museum there are detailed drawings only for the west range facing on to Giltspur Street, with no individual plans nor any elevations for the other parts of the building. There are no drawings for the Compter at the Corporation of London Record Office made before the opening of the building. The earliest is dated 1794 and is a first floor plan for a ward for the women debtors (CLRO, Comptroller's City Lands Plan 521). No photographs of the building are known.
'Compters' or prisons for debtors and petty criminals, and drunks and vagrants arrested by the nightwatch, were of medieval origin and came under the jurisdiction of a sheriff. Dance's design separated the 'night charge' vagrants from the felons and debtors. These last were housed either in the 'master's side' in apartments for which they paid, or in 'common side' wards; men and women were segregated at all times.
The dreadful state of the two City compters at Wood Street and Poultry, which had both been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and rebuilt, led to an enquiry into their condition. When Dance said that they were beyond repair it was decided to replace them with a single new compter. Various sites including Blackwell Hall were considered and one close to Newgate, but across the road at the south end of Giltspur Street facing St Sepulchre's Church was decided upon. Dance's initial design with accommodation for 180 prisoners survives as a plan only ([SM D4/3/32]) and includes an unusual seven-storey tower with a radical arrangement. Estimated to cost £39,000 together with the expense of acquiring the site, the design was turned down and Dance was asked to produce a design for 136 prisoners costing no more than £25,000. A revised design was agreed on 27 March 1787, exhibited for tenders on 11 May and the contract drawings signed on 16 June 1787 (cf. [SM D4/3/35], [SM D4/3/36], [SM D4/3/3], [SM D4/3/14]). As with other of Dance's City schemes, the design was altered between contract stage and the start of construction. The number and disposition of the buildings behind the main front was changed ([SM D4/3/37], [SM D4/3/38], [SM D4/3/39], [SM D4/3/29], [SM D4/3/30], SM D4/3/31]) and the design of the principal front facing west on to Giltspur Street altered - the striking crenallated top being replaced by tame pediments ([SM D4/3/1], [SM D4/3/2]). In the earlier design, the merlons consisted of rectangular tablets with sunk rectangular centres laid lengthwise on to the parapet: two each to the end single-bays and four to the three-bay centre. The wall below was executed in rusticated Purbeck stone and, with the semicircular-headed windows (with concentric inner and outer curved surrounds) of the final design. and ignoring the pediments, had the character of a Florentine Renaissance palazzo.
The foundation stone was laid on 19 December 1787 and the Compter was finished in 1791. In 1794, Dance designed an expansion to the northeast range (male felons' building) to accommodate prisoners from Ludgate Gaol as well as a new women's ward. Further alterations and additions followed, some of them concerned with the transfer of the debtors in 1815 to allow for the conversion of their accommodation into a house of correction when inmates were given hard labour as part of their punishment (for the related Report of 1815 see the general note on Newgate Gaol). Prison reforms including greater segregation made the Giltspur Street Compter increasingly unsuitable and in 1853 it was closed and demolished the following year. The site was not redeveloped until 1907-09 when it became the yard of a Royal Mail sorting office.
LITERATURE. A. Stratton, 'Two forgotten buildings by the Dances', Architectural Review, XL, 1916, pp.23-4; Stroud pp.130-31; Kalman pp.101-03; D.Stroud, 'The Giltspur Street Compter', Architectural History, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, XXVII, 1984, pp.127-31; B.Watson, 'The Compter prisons of London', London Archaeologist, VII, 1993, No.5, pp.115-21.
OTHER SOURCES. Corporation of London Records Office
The contract drawings show an 11-bay, heavily rusticated west front of three storeys with a three-bay centre of four storeys that is the Keeper's House. The centre and single end bays are broken slightly forward and crowned by tablet-like 'crenellations'. This west range fronting Giltspur Street houses the Sheriff's Offices on the ground floor with above, the Keeper's House in the centre and, on either side, the paying debtors' apartments, some single and some double, varying in size from 18 by 16 to 18 by 10 feet, each with a fireplace.
Behind the west range a continuous perimeter wall runs south, east and north. Within this walled compound are nine buildings (including the west range), each with its own walled yard; five are single storey - for the men and women felons and the men and women night charges. The west range, common male debtors, common female debtors and the Chapel (built over cells) were all of three storeys. It seems that the source for the planning of the Compter lies with John Howard (Kalman pp.102-03). His plan for an 'Ideal County Jail' (The State of the Prisons, 1784, plate 1) shows four irregular courts, each for a different class of prisoner. Again, as Howard recommended, Dance placed some of the wards over an arcaded ground floor so as to improve the ventilation and (in these contract drawings) arranged the individual cells for the felons against the perimeter walls. As executed, Dance improved ventilation and security by making some of these buildings free-standing ([SM D4/3/37], [SM D4/3/38], [SM D4/3/39], [SM D4/3/29], [SM D4/3/30] and [SM D4/3/31]).
The contract drawings were agreed on 27 March and signed by the contractors on 16 June 1787. However, some changes were made to the design in about September of the same year.
NOTES ON THE HANDS
Some of the drawings are by Dance, that is, [SM D4/3/32], [SM D4/3/35], [SM D4/3/36], [SM D4/3/3], [SM D4/3/14], [SM D4/3/24], [SM D4/3/11], [SM D4/3/8], [SM D4/3/13], [SM D4/3/16] and [SM D4/3/6]. The majority - [SM D4/3/2], [SM D4/3/37], [SM D4/3/38], [SM D4/3/39], [SM D4/3/29], [SM D4/3/30], [SM D4/3/25], [SM D4/3/10], [SM D4/3/7], [SM D4/3/12], [SM D4/3/27], [SM/3/28], [SM D4/3/9], [SM D4/3/15], [SM D4/3/19], [SM D4/3/20], [SM D4/3/22], [SM D4/3/4] - are in the same office hand, called here 'curly office hand' and characterised by, for example, very neat cursive titles and labels and a method of marking dimensions with dotted lines, arrows and round 'curly' numerals, and a slightly more vivid palette.
Location of drawings
The Giltspur Street Compter was opened in 1791 and of the 37 drawings (a few dated 1787) in the Soane Museum there are detailed drawings only for the west range facing on to Giltspur Street, with no individual plans nor any elevations for the other parts of the building. There are no drawings for the Compter at the Corporation of London Record Office made before the opening of the building. The earliest is dated 1794 and is a first floor plan for a ward for the women debtors (CLRO, Comptroller's City Lands Plan 521). No photographs of the building are known.
'Compters' or prisons for debtors and petty criminals, and drunks and vagrants arrested by the nightwatch, were of medieval origin and came under the jurisdiction of a sheriff. Dance's design separated the 'night charge' vagrants from the felons and debtors. These last were housed either in the 'master's side' in apartments for which they paid, or in 'common side' wards; men and women were segregated at all times.
The dreadful state of the two City compters at Wood Street and Poultry, which had both been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and rebuilt, led to an enquiry into their condition. When Dance said that they were beyond repair it was decided to replace them with a single new compter. Various sites including Blackwell Hall were considered and one close to Newgate, but across the road at the south end of Giltspur Street facing St Sepulchre's Church was decided upon. Dance's initial design with accommodation for 180 prisoners survives as a plan only ([SM D4/3/32]) and includes an unusual seven-storey tower with a radical arrangement. Estimated to cost £39,000 together with the expense of acquiring the site, the design was turned down and Dance was asked to produce a design for 136 prisoners costing no more than £25,000. A revised design was agreed on 27 March 1787, exhibited for tenders on 11 May and the contract drawings signed on 16 June 1787 (cf. [SM D4/3/35], [SM D4/3/36], [SM D4/3/3], [SM D4/3/14]). As with other of Dance's City schemes, the design was altered between contract stage and the start of construction. The number and disposition of the buildings behind the main front was changed ([SM D4/3/37], [SM D4/3/38], [SM D4/3/39], [SM D4/3/29], [SM D4/3/30], SM D4/3/31]) and the design of the principal front facing west on to Giltspur Street altered - the striking crenallated top being replaced by tame pediments ([SM D4/3/1], [SM D4/3/2]). In the earlier design, the merlons consisted of rectangular tablets with sunk rectangular centres laid lengthwise on to the parapet: two each to the end single-bays and four to the three-bay centre. The wall below was executed in rusticated Purbeck stone and, with the semicircular-headed windows (with concentric inner and outer curved surrounds) of the final design. and ignoring the pediments, had the character of a Florentine Renaissance palazzo.
The foundation stone was laid on 19 December 1787 and the Compter was finished in 1791. In 1794, Dance designed an expansion to the northeast range (male felons' building) to accommodate prisoners from Ludgate Gaol as well as a new women's ward. Further alterations and additions followed, some of them concerned with the transfer of the debtors in 1815 to allow for the conversion of their accommodation into a house of correction when inmates were given hard labour as part of their punishment (for the related Report of 1815 see the general note on Newgate Gaol). Prison reforms including greater segregation made the Giltspur Street Compter increasingly unsuitable and in 1853 it was closed and demolished the following year. The site was not redeveloped until 1907-09 when it became the yard of a Royal Mail sorting office.
LITERATURE. A. Stratton, 'Two forgotten buildings by the Dances', Architectural Review, XL, 1916, pp.23-4; Stroud pp.130-31; Kalman pp.101-03; D.Stroud, 'The Giltspur Street Compter', Architectural History, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, XXVII, 1984, pp.127-31; B.Watson, 'The Compter prisons of London', London Archaeologist, VII, 1993, No.5, pp.115-21.
OTHER SOURCES. Corporation of London Records Office
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Contents of Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787 Design not as executed, contract drawings for crenellated design, revised designs and working drawings (37)
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtor's Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787
- Giltspur Street Compter (Debtors' Prison), City of London, 1787