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London's prisons Newgate was the most notorious. From the to the twentieth century Newgate occupied the site of one of the ancientRoman gates of London. It was rebuilt five times before being demolished and replaced by the Old Bailey. Newgate housed, among many others, Daniel Defoc, Titus Oates and the Italian libertine Giacomo Casanova.

Trials lasted about fifteen minutes and the execution processions from Newgateto Tyburn were so riotous that they were discontinued in favour of hangings outside Newgate itself.

StephenHalliday mixes contemporary accounts, illustrations and biographicalsketches to throw new light on the history of this building whose name has passed into the language in an ominous phrase: 'as black as Newgate's knocker'.