Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On the right-hand side as you look down to the bridge was the notorious Alsatia district,
a haven for criminals where the authorities feared to tread, and the Bridewell. Built as a
royal palace under Henry VIII, after 1556 it became a prison for vagrants, disorderly wo-
men and petty criminals until it was closed in 1855. The gatehouse of 1808, improbably
elegant for such an institution and the only remains of the Bridewell, is a short way down
the hill at No. 14.
Priscilla Wakefield says, 'Many of the prisoners, whom we were permitted to see, were
women, young, beautiful and depraved.' These were part of the army of prostitutes who
scraped a living in London, many of them girls who had been dismissed from more respect-
able employment after becoming pregnant.
Jane was well aware of the dangers to innocent young women from procuresses. In
September 1796 she wrote to Cassandra joking of the dangers of finding herself alone in
London. 'I should inevitably fall a Sacrifice to the arts of some fat Woman who would
make me drunk with Small Beer.'
Nor does she flinch from discussing the dangers that awaited young women who 'fell',
such as the daughter of Colonel Brandon's sister-in-law, in
Sense and Sensibility.
The Col-
onel tells Elinor, 'He had left the girl whose youth and innocence he had seduced, in a situ-
ation of the utmost distress, with no creditable home, no help, no friends …' Fortunately
Brandon rescues her or she could have ended up in a place like this. No wonder the Ben-
netts were so desperate to find Lydia when she ran away with Wickham in
Pride and Pre-
judice
.
From Ludgate Circus walk up Ludgate Hill turning into Limeburner Lane, the first street
on the left. This follows the south-eastern boundary of the Fleet Prison, and the curve
retains the shape of the prison's walls. Conditions in the Fleet, which dated back to the
twelfth century, were dreadful, even after it was rebuilt in the 1780s. It was finally closed
in 1842.
On the right is the site of Belle Sauvage Yard. The Belle Sauvage was rebuilt by 1676
after the Great Fire and throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century was one of
the principal coaching inns in the City, with stables for over one hundred horses. Coaches
departed for Bath, Cambridge, Cheltenham, Hastings, Leeds and many other destinations
and it became a tourist attraction to watch them leave. The inn was demolished in 1873.
