Millbank Prison

Millbank Prison, or The Penitentiary, demolished in 1891 (and its site chosen for the National Gallery of British Art, given by Mr Henry Tate), was in Westminster, near Vauxhall Bridge. It was erected at an enormous cost to carry out the plans of the philanthropists Howard and Bentham; the latter's contract with the Treasury was signed in 1794, but the building was not actually commenced till 1812, and not completed till 1821. It had accommodation for 1100 prisoners, and was so constructed that, from a room in the centre, the governor was able to view every one of the cells, in which solitary confinement was rigidly enforced. Convicts condemned to penal servitude used to undergo first a term of solitary confinement in Millbank; but the prison ceased to be a convict establishment in 1886, and was finally closed in Nov. 1890. Tate's Gallery now occupies its site. See books on Millbank by Griffiths (1875-97).