Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Ninth - Prison and Reform - Chapter II

And suddenly we're back talking about Norwich Castle again! Away with wars and kings dying of poo-waterfalls and good Christian folk barbecuing one another. At last the County of Norfolk has had the sense to purchase the castle from the Crown and spend the groats to make it a viable prison.

And what else do they do? They keep records! No more toiling through the Pipe Rolls to see how much was spent on nails and timber; we have proper account books, measured plans and drawings. Antiquarians and early archæologists appear on the scene and make my job a whole lot easier.

Sir John Soane, via the interweb.

The brief for the new County Gaol was to use the existing castle keep to house male felons with a new prison building to the east to house debtors and women prisoners.

"Hokay …" said the County Gaol Committee, "now we need an architect. Who's good at prisons?"

Step forth, young John Soane, bricklayer's son on the rise. Sir John's biography states, "Like all young architects starting up in office he was 'taking in washing' to supplement his income." A situation with which all of us architects are only too familiar.

Young John had begun his career at age fourteen helping to prepare "descriptions and estimates" for the rebuilding of Newgate Gaol in London after the Gordon Riots (a splendid hubbub, hoo-hah and great big brawl … do look up the Gordon Riots [though not on Wikipedia, you can do better than that] and be sure to read Barnaby Rudge for a rip-roaring Dickensian riot).

Anyhoo … John was young, he had experience of prison work and above all he was cheap. He got the job. The only trouble was, young master Soane was training in neo-classicism and went on to become one of our greatest neo-classicist architects. What he knew bugger all about was Norman castles. He also went on to become one of the world's greatest looters of cultural artifacts and his house - now a museum - is a showcase for the very worst of the British Empire's theft of anything worth taking.

Soane's sketch section for the new prison; the keep on the right and the new extension on the left.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service. 

 

Soane's plan of the Ground Floor.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

 

Soane's plan of the First Floor (that's second floor if you're in the US).

Soane's absurd "castle-style" extension.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

This is what happens when you give a Norman castle to a neo-classicist. First Soane gutted the keep, ripping out all the makeshift cells to clear the way for a multi-storey, U-shaped cell block. Regrettably he also ripped out a lot of the original Norman features, an act of vandalism that forces me to brand him a git.

He demolished the old Shire House and built his new fantasy castle against the east wall of the keep. He originally wanted to demolish the Bigod Tower, flat-roofed porch extensions being insufficiently neo-classical, but mercifully was told to retain it. However, the defended stair leading to the tower was destroyed as part of Soane's plan, having stood firm since 1136.

A strangely incongruous engraving showing Soane's execrable County Gaol extension built in 1789 - 1793 attached to the old, un-repaired keep.

Looks like someone had an old etching plate of Norwich Castle and added Soane's extension to it.

Collection of Old Dive.

 

 

Before we get too bogged down in architectural drawings, none of these chapters have been complete without a good old-fashioned handbag fight and so it's about time that we kicked one off …

Next up: The Soane v. Wilkins Handbag Smack-down. Picture two old men in Mexican wrestling masks and spandex bashing one another over the head with folding chairs and you get some taste of what's to come … or possibly not.

Sources:

The Annual Register: A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year: Edmund Burke (ed) and successors: 1758 to Present

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume XI "The Whig Supremacy: 1714 - 1760" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XII "The Reign of George III: 1760 - 1815" J. Steven-Watson (ed): 1960

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XIII "The Age of Reform: 1815 - 1870" Sir. Llewellyn Woodward (ed): 1938