Museums

Clink Prison Museum

A dungeon museum on the site of the Bishop of Winchester's prison, which gave English its word for jail.

Bankside lay outside the City's rule, in the Liberty of the Clink, where the Bishop of Winchester was lord: he licensed the brothels along the river, took the rents, and locked up anyone who did not pay him in the prison beside his palace. It held debtors, Catholic priests under Elizabeth, Protestant preachers under Mary and the actors and pimps of the Bankside theatres, from the twelfth century until it burned in the Gordon Riots of 1780, and its name became the word for any jail. The museum stands on the site, in a cellar off the lane that still carries the name, and it does not pretend to be subtle: waxwork prisoners, manacles and the boot, a rack, and the stories of those who were kept here, with the ruin of the bishop's great hall and its rose window standing outside in Clink Street.

Where

1 Clink Street, SE1 9DG

Nearest station

London Bridge · 4 min walk

Hours

NearbyMuseums

• Golden Hinde1 min walk
• Rose Theatre Exhibition3 min walk
• Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret4 min walk

NearbyOther Categories

• LongboysDesserts & Gelato1 min walk
• Winchester PalaceMonuments & Ruins1 min walk
• Borough YardsBeautiful Streets1 min walk

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.