Prison Type Convict Prison
Date opened 1842
Date closed 1885 [post 1900 (still open)]
Location Caledonian Road London
Map location exact or closely approximate
County Middlesex
Opened late 1842, for male convicts ideally aged 18-35 and with some promise, to serve a probationary period of 18 months before dispatch to the Australian penal colonies, their behaviour at Pentonville determining their place in the colonies (the best receiving tickets of leave). In 1849, however, the special status of Pentonville in the convict system was removed, and it became, like Millbank (ID 1000) a place for all male convicts to serve their probationary term (now reduced to 9 months), after which they would be transported or sent to a public works prison. This function continued more or less (notable exceptions including the reception of military prisoners in the 1860s, and the use of associated labour to enlarge the prison in the late 1860s and early 1870s) until the decision to remove it from the convict prison system in 1885 and hand it over to the local prison authorities (see ID 665).
Prison Type Convict Prison
Date opened 1842
Date closed 1885 [post 1900 (still open)]
Location Caledonian Road London
Map location exact or closely approximate
Lat. 51.545 Long. -0.115833
County Middlesex
Image Attribution 'Gateway of Pentonville' in Mayhew and Binny, Criminal Prisons of London (1862), p. 112
Opened late 1842, for male convicts ideally aged 18-35 and with some promise, to serve a probationary period of 18 months before dispatch to the Australian penal colonies, their behaviour at Pentonville determining their place in the colonies (the best receiving tickets of leave). In 1849, however, the special status of Pentonville in the convict system was removed, and it became, like Millbank (ID 1000) a place for all male convicts to serve their probationary term (now reduced to 9 months), after which they would be transported or sent to a public works prison. This function continued more or less (notable exceptions including the reception of military prisoners in the 1860s, and the use of associated labour to enlarge the prison in the late 1860s and early 1870s) until the decision to remove it from the convict prison system in 1885 and hand it over to the local prison authorities (see ID 665).
Year 1843
Annual -
Daily Census - 501
Year 1848
Annual Confined - 1020
Daily Census - 507
Year 1853
Annual Confined - 981
Daily Census - 488
Year 1858
Annual Confined - 1296
Daily Census - 465
Year 1863
Annual Confined - 1287
Daily Census - 521
Year 1868
Annual Confined - 1490
Daily Census - 589
Year 1873
Annual Confined - 2383
Daily Census - 871
Year 1878
Annual Confined - 2652
Daily Census - 1005
Year 1883
Annual Confined - 2732
Daily Census - 1062
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 21/4
Collection: Home Office
Description: Prisons entry books, series I, Pentonville
Dates: 1847-1849
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/335
Collection: Home Office
Description: Treatment of prisoners
Dates: 1843-1844
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/84-89
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville, minute books
Dates: 1842-1850
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/223
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Warrants constituting and appointing Convict Prisons etc. Pentonville Prison
Dates: 1853
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/96-97
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville Prison, Middlesex, visitors' order book
Dates: 1849-1850
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/90
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville, Commissioners visiting book
Dates: 1843-1854
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/91-92
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville, Directors' visiting books
Dates: 1854-1885
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/353
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville, Chaplain's journal
Dates: 1846-1851
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/93
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville Prison, Middlesex, visitors' book
Dates: 1862-1863
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/94
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville Prison, Middlesex, visitors' minute book
Dates: 1842-1849
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/95
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville Prison, Middlesex, visitors' observation book
Dates: 1880-1885
Archive name: London Metropolitan Archives
Catalogue ref: MJ/SP/1888/01/046
Collection: Middlesex Sessions of the Peace
Description: Accounts and General Purposes Committee. John Mayer, former Scripture Reader at Pentonville Prison, formerly Cold Bath Fields Prison. Particulars of his pension.
Dates: 1888
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 24/16-19
Collection: Home Office
Description: Pentonville Prison registers. volumes 1-4
Dates: 1842-1875
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/61-80
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville Prison, Middlesex, register of prisoners
Dates: 1842-1885
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/98-104
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Pentonville Prison, Middlesex, photograph albums of prisoners
Dates: 1875-1885