The Clink

File:The Clink Prison - blue plaque.JPG on the site]]

There had been a prison owned by the Bishop of Winchester in one form or another since the year 860, although at that time it would only have been one cell in a priests' college. By 1076 an archbishop had several types of punishment allowed: scourging with rods; solitary confinement; and bread and water in silence.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A623864 The Clink Prison Museum, Clink Street, London] at h2g2.com

The Bishop of Winchester, whose diocese was located in Hampshire on the southern coast of England, ordered the construction of the Winchester Palace chapel and mansion at the Southwark site to serve as a residence close to his London governmental duties,{{cite book|author=Matthew Lewis|title=Medieval Britain in 100 Facts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOcgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT38|date=15 October 2015|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-4456-4735-7|pages=38–}} sometime after the acquisition of the manor territory between 1144 and 1149.Martha Carlin 'Medieval Southwark' London 1999.

The prison was any number of structures within the mansion's area whereby the local miscreants were kept to await trial. The higher status of some of its internees was solely due to the importance of the Bishop of Winchester as a senior member of the king's government, usually as Lord Chancellor, who could also put to trial in his ecclesiastic court those accused of heresy and other religious offences.

As the gaolers were very poorly paid, they found other ways to supplement their income. This meant that prisoners with money and friends on the outside were able to pay the gaolers to make their time better. The gaolers hired out rooms, beds, bedding, candles and fuel to those who could afford it. Food and drink were charged at twice the outside price. They accepted payments for fitting lighter irons and for removing them completely. For a fee, prisoners would be allowed outside to beg or even to work. Madams were allowed to keep a brothel going, with payments going to the gaolers.Burford, E. J. In the Clink: Story of England's Oldest Prison, New English Library, 1978 Poorer prisoners had to beg at the grates that led up to street level and sell anything they had with them, including their clothes, to pay for food.

Winchester House was raided by rioters protesting the Statute of Labourers in 1450.{{Cite web|title = VIPA Clink Prison Museum|url = http://vipauk.org/enter/muse/lond/c06.html|website = vipauk.org|access-date = 2016-01-19}} Classing clerics as tax collectors, they murdered them and released prisoners from the Clink before burning it down. The rebellion was put down and Winchester House was rebuilt and extended, including a new prison.

Originally, most of the prisoners had been those who had broken the rules of the Liberty, but by the 16th century, it had become largely a prison for actual or supposed heretics who held contrary views to the bishops.[https://books.google.com/books?id=RTH31DgbTzgC&dq=clink+prison&pg=PA64 Mitchel P. Roth, Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia, Greenwood Press, Westport CT 2006] {{ISBN|0-313-32856-0}} (p. 64) The Marian martyrs John Bradford and John Hooper were amongst the inmates.[https://books.google.com/books?id=yaRZ1cAMd2UC&dq=clink+prison&pg=PA426 Henry Benjamin Wheatley, London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, Cambridge University Press, 1891] (p. 426) In later years it was mainly a debtors' prison.

In 1649 Winchester House was sold to a property developer and was divided into shops, tenements and dye houses. The Cage was removed temporarily as taxpayers had complained about the cost of upkeep, but the whipping post was still busy. By 1707 both of these and the stocks were all unused because of the cost of upkeep, and by 1732 there were only two registered inmates. In 1745 a temporary prison was used, as the Clink was too decayed to use, but by 1776 the prison was again taking in debtors. It was burnt down in 1780 by Gordon rioters, and was never rebuilt.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol6/pp29-44 Walford in Old and New London, vol. 6.]

The Clink Prison Museum exhibition is located on Clink Street, near to the original site, at Bankside,{{cite map |author = |title =London VII.76 |trans-title = |map = |map-url = |date = |year = 1896|url = |scale =1:1,056 |series = |publisher = Ordnance Survey}} Southwark. The Clink Prison Museum tries to recreate the conditions of the original prison.

• Father Laurence Vaux ~ 1581–1585{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Laurence Vaux |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15315c.htm |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=www.newadvent.org}} priest, catechism author
• William Alabaster ~ 1597, John Gerard, S.J. (2012), The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, Ignatius Press. Pages 308-309. poet and playwright.
• Father John Gerard, S.J. ~1594–1597 John Gerard, S.J. (2012), The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, Ignatius Press. Pages 94-110, 294-297.
• Father John Jones OFM ~1596–1598.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13055a.htm Wainewright, John. "St. John Rigby." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 5 February 2013]
• Father George Blackwell ~1607–1613
• Matthew Wilson, alias Edward Knott, Jesuit author.Bernard Basset, S.J., The English Jesuits: From Campion to Martindale (Great Britain : Ditchling Press for Herder and Herder, 1967). 1629–1633

• John Lothropp
• Anne Askew{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}

• List of prisons in the United Kingdom
• The Clink (restaurant)

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{citation |last=Burford |first=E. J. |title=In the Clink: Story of England's Oldest Prison |year=1978 |publisher=New English Library |isbn=978-0-450-03217-2}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{official|https://www.clink.co.uk/}}
• [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseofcommons/reformacts/from-the-parliamentary-collections/wilkes1/wilkes4/ John Wilkes & The Kings Bench Prison - UK Parliament Living Heritage]

{{Prisons in London}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clink}}

Category:Prison museums in the United Kingdom

Category:Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark

Category:Defunct prisons in London

Category:Museums in the London Borough of Southwark

Category:12th-century establishments in England

Category:Debtors' prisons

Category:Prisons in Surrey

Category:Demolished prisons