The site on which Tate Britain stands today, has a very gloomy history. Between 1816 and 1890 Millbank Prison, also known as Millbank Penitentiary, was located here. Its imposing walls and formidable reputation evoked a sense of dread and curiosity among Londoners for many years.
The construction of Millbank Prison began in 1812. Its primary purpose was to alleviate the overcrowding and squalor of London's existing prisons, such as Newgate and Tothill Fields. Millbank was designed to accommodate a large number of inmates, with a capacity to hold around 1,000 prisoners.
The prison was designed by Jeremy Bentham, the father of Utilitarianism. The architecture of Millbank Prison reflected the prevailing penal philosophy of the time, emphasizing isolation and punishment. The prison was built in a “Panopticon” design, which consisted of a central watchtower from which the watcher could observe any of the six pentagonal buildings containing the inmates, each housing separate categories of offenders. The cells were small, cramped, and lacked adequate ventilation, leading to unsanitary and oppressive conditions. The network of corridors was so labyrinthine that even the warders got lost.
Plan of Millbank Prison, G.P. Holford, An Account of Millbank Penitentiary (1828).
Life inside Millbank Prison was harsh and regimented. Inmates endured a strict regime of hard labor, meager rations, and limited contact with the outside world. The prison authorities enforced a policy of silence, forbidding prisoners from speaking to one another. This severe approach aimed to deter criminal behavior through punishment and isolation.
Despite its intentions, Millbank Prison quickly gained a reputation for its dismal conditions and deplorable treatment of inmates. Reports of violence, disease outbreaks, and rampant corruption within the prison walls were rife. The prison's harsh regime often resulted in physical and mental deterioration among the prisoners, rather than promoting rehabilitation or reform.
As the 19th century progressed, public sentiment towards the prison system shifted. Reforms in penal philosophy emphasized the need for rehabilitation and a more humane approach to incarceration. Millbank Prison, with its outdated design and oppressive practices, came to symbolize the failures of the old penal system.
In 1842 a "model prison" at Pentonville was opened and took over Millbank's role as the National Penitentiary. Millbank's status was downgraded, and it became a holding facility for convicted prisoners before they were transported to Australia.
In 1890 Millbank Prison was finally closed, and its once imposing walls were eventually demolished making way for the construction of the Tate Britain art gallery.
Today, Millbank Prison exists mainly in memory and historical records. However, some physical traces can also be found. One bollard survives where convicts began their transportation to Australia, across the road from the Morpeth Arms pub (the pub of prisoners and spies, see our story
https://reveal.world/story/the-pub-of-prisoners-and-spies). A plaque on the bollard reads: “Near this site stood Millbank Prison, which opened in 1816 and closed in 1890. This buttress stood at the head of the river steps from which, until 1867, prisoners sentenced to transportation embarked on their journey to Australia.”
A segment of the outer trench encircling the prison still remains, stretching between Cureton Street and John Islip Street. Today, it serves as a designated area for drying clothes, utilized by the residents of Wilkie House.
During archaeological explorations conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s at the locations occupied by Chelsea College of Art and Design and Tate Britain, noteworthy remnants of Millbank Prison were uncovered. These included substantial foundations of the external pentagon walls, fragments of the inner hexagon, remnants of two watchtowers situated within the courtyard, drainage culverts, and sections of Smirke's concrete raft.
Historic England has speculated that the granite gate piers located at the entrance of Purbeck House on High Street in Swanage, Dorset, along with an adjacent granite bollard, may potentially originate from Millbank Prison.
There are many cultural references to Millbank Prison, in novels by Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, among others.
Charles Dickens describes the prison in chapter 52 of his novel “Bleak House” (1852–53). One of the characters is put into custody there, and other characters go to visit him. Esther Summerson, one of the book's narrators, gives a brief description of its layout.
In Henry James's novel “The Princess Casamassima” (1886) the prison is the "primal scene" of Hyacinth Robinson's life: the visit to his mother, dying in the infirmary, is described in chapter 3. Henry James actually visited Millbank to gain material.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in chapter 8 of “The Sign of Four” (1890) refers to Holmes and Watson crossing the Thames from the house of Mordecai Smith and landing by the Millbank Penitentiary.
In chapter 8 of Conan Doyle's “The Lost World” (1912), Professor Challenger says that he dislikes walking along the Thames as it is always sad to see one's final destination. Challenger means that he expects to be buried at Westminster Abbey, but his rival Professor Summerlee responds sardonically that he understands that Millbank Prison has been demolished.
The prison is a key location in Sarah Waters' novel “Affinity” (1999).
Cover photo: Millbank Prison in London by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, published 1829.
