Hanging in a glass-enclosed case within the church of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate, The Newgate Execution Bell was once used on the eve of executions at the notorious Newgate Prison. Commissioned in the 12th century by King Henry II, Newgate Prison was renowned for its appalling conditions, and its public executions drew large crowds. At midnight on the eve of an execution, St. Sepulchre’s Bellman would pass by an underground passage to Newgate Prison and ring twelve double tolls to the prisoners, while he chanted: ‘All you that in the condemned hold do lie, Prepare you, for tomorrow you shall die…The Lord above have mercy on your souls’. Over one thousand people were put to death outside the Newgate Prison, and the Prison remained in use until 1902.
- The Newgate Execution Bell
- St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate
- Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2DQ
- www.st-sepulchre.org.uk
- Underground: Farringdon and St. Paul’s