Throughout its life, London's status as a major metropolis led to it attracting its fair portion of crime, which in turn led to prisons being built, many of which are no longer standing today. We've found a few interesting modern structures that now sit on their remains.
Millbank Prison
Author Henry James once visited Millbank Prison and described it as, 'lying there, sprawling over the neighbourhood with brown, bare, windowless walls, truncated pinnacles and a character unspeakably sad and stern.'
Standing on its former site is a radically different establishment: Tate Britain. The gallery doesn't inspire the same misery as its predecessor for most people, but we're sure there's a modern art hater out there somewhere — dragged along on a family day out — feeling like an inmate on the inside.
Newgate Prison
This is perhaps the most apt out of any of the transformations listed. From one branch of the justice system to another, where Newgate Prison once stood is now the Old Bailey. Instead of sitting in a cell, this is now the place where you find out you'll be sitting in a cell.
Coldbath Fields Prison
Coldbath Fields Prison* and Mount Pleasant Mail Centre share more than their unusual names. They're also built on the same bit of land in Farringdon.
*Seriously, was You're Not Going To Have A Very Nice Time Jail already taken?
Gatehouse Prison
The Gatehouse Prison was the gatehouse of one of London's most famous landmarks, Westminster Abbey. Dissenters against the church were held here until the place was torn down in 1776.
The very spot it once stood is where tourists mill about and congregate today. It's also the spot for the Westminster Scholars' Crimean War Memorial.
Palace of Placentia
The Palace of Placentia is a beautifully named royal residence from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of Henry VIII. However, the palace fell on hard times and just over 200 years after its creation, it became a much less glamorous biscuit factory, and a prisoner-of-war camp during the English Civil War.
Charles II wanted to rebuild the palace so had it demolished, with the site remaining empty until 1694 when building began on Sir Christopher Wren's Greenwich Hospital. That lasted until 1869, after which the building was transferred to the Navy for use as a training site. Nowadays it's famous as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Old Royal Naval College.
Tothill Fields Bridewell
Tothill Fields Bridewell is the second Westminster spot on this list. It stood from 1618 to 1877, going through numerous incarnations: at times it was a men's prison, at others a women's, and was even a juvenile prison for a period. When the prison closed in 1877, its foundations were found to be so sturdy that they were reused when the cathedral went up in its place.
Tower of London
Where the Tower of London once stood is now... the Tower of London. This one isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but its days as a prison are long behind. It's an oft-quoted bit of trivia that the last residents of the prison were east London's favourite gangsters, the Kray Twins, who left in 1952.