Wandsworth (HM Prison)

From Freepedia

HM Prison Wandsworth is a prison in Wandsworth in south London, England. It was built in 1851 when it was known as the Surrey House of Correction. It was designed according to the humane Panopticon principle with a number of corridors radiating from a central control point and each prisoner having toilet facilities. Subsequently, the toilets were removed to increase prison capacity and the prisoners had to engage in the humiliating process of 'slopping-out' until 1996. Wandsworth contains two wings. The smaller one was originally designed for women but now houses the Vulnerable Prisoners Unit - primarily those convicted of sex offences.

It was the site of 135 executions, from 1878 to 1961. Notable people executed include traitors Duncan Scott-Ford, William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and John Amery and murderers George Chapman, John George Haigh and Derek Bentley. The gallows were finally dismantled in 1998. The execution chamber is now used as a tea room for the prison officers.

In 1951, it was chosen as the site for a national stock of two types of implement for serious corporal punishment inflicted in prison under magistrate's orders, either as part of the original sentence or as disciplinary punisment under the prison rules : birch and cat o' nine tails

Ronnie Biggs, Great Train Robber, escaped from Wandsworth in 1965.