New-York tribune., 1902-08-24

rFaRING DOWN NEWGATE.
-,,-r OF IONDON'S OLDTIME PRISON
WILL, BE BUSTLING BUSINESS
Br-rLDING- WHENCE JACK"
SHEPPARD ESCAPED.

-o,,e NewCate Prison. where so much or
49, criminal history has been enacted. is
- .o-n down. Although the present struct-
nos erected in the eighteenth century. the
-,oo,,v building belonged more to medieval
. or6 its Graveyard" and cells were
--..bla vaults in which the unfortunate occu-
us may truly be said to have been buried
.,i,e Newgate. when compared with the old
IBIS Of this city. is found TO be much like it
=. ;,s manner Of construction and its style OF
a-o,itecture. Although the London 'Tombs"
.,a not have the sphnXlike exterior possessed
- she famous OLD prison of this city. neverthe-
,.sc il had much the same style of galleries,
cells and yards
uta destruction Of Newgate has been con-
..rnIsted for a long time. but the actual work
r,.s not begun until the present time because
g numerous Obstacles On the site will be
octed \ business building, and instead OF
.,oomv cells filled with idle men awaiting death
more will Zoe electrically lighted offices. open
nd airy. and tenanted by industrious workers.
The contrast could hardly he more complete.
THE structure that is beng demolished is
nv no means the original Newgate. Several
nrisons have occupied this part Of London. the
a-st being one Of the towers Of the old City,
r,icb WAS at the new gate of the town wall and
ch
5rs, mentioned in l205 The building now fall
,,g before the wreckers' hammers was begun
= 177o but the Gordon rioters in 1880 partially
,sstroyed the unfinished structure.
Nawrate Was len rebuilt and here We're i'm
,-,soned the chief criminals of the metropolis,
,sare those convicted of murder We're publicly
sracu,ed before its doors. When public eNecu-
+isns came to be considered demoralizing and
he iR
witnessed them, the nlurderers were executed
xithin the prison and buried beneath the paw
ing stones of the hall leading through TO the
a,s Railav- This hail Was commonly known
IS lhe Graveyard" Those who paid the pen
atty Of death within these grim precincts we're
oslitarated by means of quicklime placed in
+hair collins but a token of their existence was
l.ft in the share of an iron letter. representing
the initial of their Surnanes and fastened AZ
the wall over their graves
or late years NewGate had only been used for
prisoners awaiting trial at the Central Criminal
raurt RuiIding and for those there condemned
70 death At Newgate. moreover. only muir
serers whose crimes had been committed in the
METROPOLITAN district were executed Trans
nontine nurierers ara hanged at Wandsworth
Hail unless otherwise ordered 10y the authori-
ties 1t was in 1858 that the interior Of New
gate was rebuilt on the single cell system In
crowded times the prison held nearly two hun
dred conyicts-
II WAS out Of old Newgate that the notorious
Jack" Sheppard broke, and the story OF his
escape. although il is now nearly two hundred
years Old is being retold by Londoners at the
present time Jack Sheppard. like many an
other criminal owed his downfall to the com
pany Of bad women His father was a car
penter, and a man of sterling honesty. The boy
was also apprenticed to a carpenter. Owen