Gatehouse at HMP Wormwood Scrubs

Gatehouse at HMP Wormwood Scrubs

This is a prison gatehouse, completed by 1885, forming the entrance to Wormwood Scrubs convict prison which was constructed between 1874 and 1891 under the direction of Edmund Du Cane, Chairman of the newly-established national Prison Commission and Director of Convict Prisons.

The building is constructed in red brown brick laid in English bond with Portland stone dressing. It features flush Portland stone quoins, slightly moulded plinths, bands, arcades and cornices, and terracotta medallions. The gates themselves have been replaced.

The plan follows the manner of a medieval gatehouse, with a central gateway flanked by a pair of symmetrical octagonal towers. The entrance is a central round-arched opening carried on slender shafts with simple cushion capitals, and is set beneath a heavy corbel table and flat moulded parapet. Each tower is broader on its outer face than on its flanks, and features flush quoins and I-shaped panels. A deep moulded band runs at the height of the wall parapet, with a narrower moulded band just below the parapet height above the entrance. The upper stage of each tower has a continuous moulded frieze, a shallow blind arcade to each face, and a moulded cornice carrying an octagonal tile roof. Notably, each tower displays a large terracotta bust within a moulded stone roundel: Elizabeth Fry appears to the left and John Howard to the right, both celebrated penal reformers. The returns of each tower are treated more simply.

The structures to either side and rear of the gatehouse are of no special interest. The perimeter wall has been largely rebuilt with an enlarged parapet and its corner towers removed, and is also not of special interest. Some remains of the former iron gateposts and railings survive in front of the entrance and fronting Du Cane Road.

This gatehouse represents the standard form for the 1870s onwards and constituted the richest element of the perimeter. In simplified form it provided a model for subsequent prisons such as Norwich. Unlike earlier prison gatehouses where the Governor's house was integral to the design, this is a self-contained gateway. At Wormwood Scrubs, staff were housed outside the prison on Du Cane Road, and some of these buildings survive, though in poor condition.

The prison was designed by Edmund du Cane to house convicts under the auspices of the newly-established national Prison Commission. Du Cane was an experienced military engineer appointed to rationalise the prison system. The complex was laid out in parallel blocks adopting the "telegraph pole" plan, a new plan form in Victorian prisons at that time, unlike its predecessors such as Pentonville which had generally been laid out radially. Some convict prisons had already incorporated simple parallel blocks, but local prisons built under Joshua Jebb had favoured the radial plan. The "telegraph pole" plan proved highly influential and provided a model for subsequent English prisons including Bristol and Norwich following the 1877 Prison Act, and was further developed at Fresnes in France and in the United States. Its origins may be traced to the "pavilion" plan hospitals advanced by Florence Nightingale after the Crimean War, based on European principles designed to minimise the spread of infection whilst allowing maximum circulation of fresh air. Wormwood Scrubs shares striking similarities in its general layout with the Herbert Military Hospital at Woolwich, in that the blocks are aligned north-south to allow sunlight into each cell.

The prison was designed and executed by the Prison Commission and was built using convict labour housed on site, with materials either brought from other convict prisons or manufactured on site. Convicts lived in temporary accommodation on site until the cell blocks were habitable. This approach resulted in significantly reduced costs, with the prison built at £97,155, equating to £70 7 shillings per cell, compared with £161 17 shillings and 3 pence per cell at Pentonville, which opened in 1842. The chapel, dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and completed in 1894, is probably the largest and perhaps finest prison chapel in England. The gatehouse, completed by 1885, with its striking elevation and portrait medallions of the prison reformers John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, has become an iconic symbol of the English prison system.

During the 1880s demand for convict prisons fell, and most reverted to local prison status or were demolished. Women were housed at Wormwood Scrubs until female prisons such as Holloway were established. From the early twentieth century, young offenders were housed in part of the prison, which provided a modified borstal system of education and training. The prison closed briefly from 1940 to 1942 when it became a military site. On reopening, it again housed young offenders until specialist units such as Feltham took over. In the 1990s the prison was refurbished, with many of the nineteenth-century service blocks demolished and the cell blocks linked by new buildings at the north end of the site.