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Great Expectations vocabulary

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Newgate: tags: [geography]

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Definition:

a dark, gloomy prison in London, the original of which dates as far back as 1218; was two centuries afterwards rebuilt, and destroyed in the great fire of 1666; rebuilt in 1780; is now used only for prisoners awaiting trial during Sessions, and as a place of execution.

Rev. James Wood. The Nuttall Encyclopaedia (1907)
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one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. From it, a Roman road led west to Silchester, Hampshire.:31 Excavations in 1875, 1903 and 1909 revealed the Roman structure and showed that it consisted of a double roadway between two square flanking guardroom towers.

From the 12th century, at least, the gate was used as a prison for debtors and felons. This, the notorious Newgate Prison, was later extended to the south on the site of the modern Central Criminal Court on Old Bailey. The gate was demolished in 1767.

It was once thought that Newgate was "New" since it was built after the Roman period but archaeological evidence has shown that it was of Roman origin; it is therefore possible that the gate was so named when the Ludgate became less used due to the building of the fourth St Paul's Cathedral in the early medieval period.

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