Poultry Compter

Overview

Details

Records

Overview

Prison Type   Local Prison -  Common Gaol

Jurisdiction   Municipality

Date opened   medieval

Date closed   1817

Location   Grocers' Alley   London

Map location   exact or closely approximate

County   Middlesex

Critical Remarks

Exact foundation date unknown. Primarily used for debtors, but also functioned as a common gaol. The intention was close this prison, along with Wood Street Compter, at the end of the eighteenth century, and relocate the prisoners of both institutions to the Giltspur Street Compter (ID 99), but Neild found the Poultry Compter had been reopened and again filled with prisoners (debtors and felons) in the early years of the nineteenth century as a result of overcrowding at Giltspur Street.

Related Prisons

Prison Info

Prison Type   Local Prison

Jurisdiction   Municipality

Date opened   medieval

Date closed   1817

Location   Grocers' Alley   London

Map location   exact or closely approximate
Lat.   51.5137  Long.   -0.0906

County   Middlesex

Critical Remarks

Exact foundation date unknown. Primarily used for debtors, but also functioned as a common gaol. The intention was close this prison, along with Wood Street Compter, at the end of the eighteenth century, and relocate the prisoners of both institutions to the Giltspur Street Compter (ID 99), but Neild found the Poultry Compter had been reopened and again filled with prisoners (debtors and felons) in the early years of the nineteenth century as a result of overcrowding at Giltspur Street.

Related Prisons

Principal Primary Sources

  • James Neild, The State of the Prisons of England, Scotland and Wales (London, 1812), p.484

Additional Primary Sources

  • Walter Thornbury, 'The Poultry', in Old and New London: Volume 1 (London, 1878), pp. 416-424. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol1/pp416-424.

Secondary Sources

  • https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/visitor-information/Documents/59-prison-records.pdf

Management

Archive name: London Metropolitan Archives

Catalogue ref: CLA/030/02/002-006

Collection: Poultry Compter

Description: Returns as to state of prison and prisoners' health

Dates: 1815


Prisoners

Archive name: London Metropolitan Archives

Catalogue ref: CLA/030/01/001-017

Collection: Poultry Compter

Description: Charge books

Dates: 1800-1815


Archive name: London Metropolitan Archives

Catalogue ref: CLA/030/01/018-022

Collection: Poultry Compter

Description: Commitment books

Dates: 1800-1815


Archive name: London Metropolitan Archives

Catalogue ref: CLA/041/PI/01/001-002, 009, 011-013

Collection: City of London Coroners Court

Description: Inquests into deaths of prisoners

Dates: 1783-1815