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Execution Dock

Wapping, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Greater London, England

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  • Get directions Wapping, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Greater London, England
    Wapping, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Greater London England
    Coordinates: 51.50356, -0.05641
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Condemned prisoners were brought from Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, across London Bridge, and past the Tower of London to Execution Dock. Some prisoners were housed in Newgate prison and they went via Cornhill, Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road to Wapping. The procession to the gallows was led by the Marshal on horseback carrying a silver oar, representing the authority of the Admiralty. The prisoner travelled in a cart with a chaplain and the hangman. Crowds lined the shoreline or hired boats moored in the Thames to get a better view of the proceedings. Hangings were carried out in the same way as on land and in later times a "New Drop" gallows was used. After execution the body(s) were chained to a stake at the low water mark and left there until three high tides had washed over them. Somewhere between 1786 and 1814, this practice ceased. In particularly serious cases of piracy the court could order gibbeting after execution in which case the body was covered in pitch and gibbeted lower down the Thames on the Isle of Dogs or Bugsby's Hole or Reach near Blackwall, as a deterrent to passing merchant sailors. (Gibbeting ceased in 1834 for civil and nautical crimes). In cases of murder, after 1752, the court would order dissection (the same as for civilian murders). The criminal was taken down from the gallows when the tide had come in far enough for the water to touch his feet before being removed and sent to Surgeon's Hall. Just as in the procession to Tyburn, those prisoners going to Execution Dock were allowed to stop for a drink and the landlord of The Turk's Head pub supplied them with a quart of ale. (/www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/)
Condemned prisoners were brought from Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, across London Bridge, and past the Tower of London to Execution Dock. Some prisoners were housed in Newgate prison and they went via Cornhill, Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road to Wapping. The procession to the gallows was led by the Marshal on horseback carrying a silver oar, representing the authority of the Admiralty. The prisoner travelled in a cart with a chaplain and the hangman. Crowds lined the shoreline or hired boats moored in the Thames to get a better view of the proceedings. Hangings were carried out in the same way as on land and in later times a "New Drop" gallows was used. After execution the body(s) were chained to a stake at the low water mark and left there until three high tides had washed over them. Somewhere between 1786 and 1814, this practice ceased. In particularly serious cases of piracy the court could order gibbeting after execution in which case the body was covered in pitch and gibbeted lower down the Thames on the Isle of Dogs or Bugsby's Hole or Reach near Blackwall, as a deterrent to passing merchant sailors. (Gibbeting ceased in 1834 for civil and nautical crimes). In cases of murder, after 1752, the court would order dissection (the same as for civilian murders). The criminal was taken down from the gallows when the tide had come in far enough for the water to touch his feet before being removed and sent to Surgeon's Hall. Just as in the procession to Tyburn, those prisoners going to Execution Dock were allowed to stop for a drink and the landlord of The Turk's Head pub supplied them with a quart of ale. (/www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/)

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  • Added: 14 Oct 2021
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2739939