Gloucester prison are running their last permission visits this weekend, so I thought this would be a good time to share some photos.
History:
HMP Gloucester was a Cat B Men’s prison, located pretty centrally in the town. Not sure if that’s wise, but hey ho. It closed in 2013.
It originally opened in 1792 as a County Gaol and has been rebuilt, refurbed and added to throughout the age’s right up until 1987. The most (and probably only) notable inmate was Fred West.
In April, 2003, Gloucester was named in a survey as "among the 20 most overcrowded jails" in the United Kingdom. The following day, the prison was the scene of a three-and-a-half-hour siege when two prisoners protested over visiting rights by barricading themselves in a cell.
Come on inside
They started a ‘time bank’ scheme in 2006, which I think is a lovely idea: Inmates who joined the scheme restored bicycles in the prison workshop, and this time was credited to their friends and families who could cash it in to get help from volunteers in the community.]
Typical Cell
In 2017 the prison was open for permission visits while Planning permission was finalised. The last tour will be run this weekend.
The Explore:
I had a rare day off work and thought that prison would be a welcome break from the office. When I mentioned it to my Dad I was surprised of his enthusiastic “Ooh, can I come?” Although he’s always loved my photos he’s never really condoned my hobby!
The biggest worry about access was hearing that they’d occasionally just not open due to lack of volunteers. It’s a 3.5 hour drive each way for us, so we’d have to set off hours before they opened in order to get a full day there – hence we couldn’t even phone them to find out if they’re open, we’d just have to gamble it. As you can probably guess, they were indeed happy to see us.
As it was a weekday there wasn’t many visitors, I think there was one other couple there all day while we were there. Had a chat to a former guard as we were leaving and he showed us a couple of roped off bits (which we’d inevitably shown ourselves into previously) as well as a few grisly anecdotes.
The exercise yard was bleak.
As part of the development process an archaeological dig took place in the exercise yard. Turns out all the prisoners who were executed here were also buried here. It was deep with bodies.
Human bone fragments still litter the courtyard…
One corner of the exercise yard was hidden from general sight. The things that must have happened in this little recess… one of the things was scratching your name into the wall, people have been doing it for a long time…
The main landings. Apologies if it’s a bit pic heavy they were very photogenic!
A new(ish) looking corridor leads to the visiting areas
Although modern, and giving outside visitors a impression of civility, the visiting area was completely soulless and not at all representative of the architecture beyond.
It was quite heartbreaking to see the visiting area for kids.
Chapel:
Slop down!
Thanks for looking.
Fully Decommissioned
History:
HMP Gloucester was a Cat B Men’s prison, located pretty centrally in the town. Not sure if that’s wise, but hey ho. It closed in 2013.
It originally opened in 1792 as a County Gaol and has been rebuilt, refurbed and added to throughout the age’s right up until 1987. The most (and probably only) notable inmate was Fred West.
In April, 2003, Gloucester was named in a survey as "among the 20 most overcrowded jails" in the United Kingdom. The following day, the prison was the scene of a three-and-a-half-hour siege when two prisoners protested over visiting rights by barricading themselves in a cell.
Come on inside
They started a ‘time bank’ scheme in 2006, which I think is a lovely idea: Inmates who joined the scheme restored bicycles in the prison workshop, and this time was credited to their friends and families who could cash it in to get help from volunteers in the community.]
Typical Cell
In 2017 the prison was open for permission visits while Planning permission was finalised. The last tour will be run this weekend.
The Explore:
I had a rare day off work and thought that prison would be a welcome break from the office. When I mentioned it to my Dad I was surprised of his enthusiastic “Ooh, can I come?” Although he’s always loved my photos he’s never really condoned my hobby!
The biggest worry about access was hearing that they’d occasionally just not open due to lack of volunteers. It’s a 3.5 hour drive each way for us, so we’d have to set off hours before they opened in order to get a full day there – hence we couldn’t even phone them to find out if they’re open, we’d just have to gamble it. As you can probably guess, they were indeed happy to see us.
As it was a weekday there wasn’t many visitors, I think there was one other couple there all day while we were there. Had a chat to a former guard as we were leaving and he showed us a couple of roped off bits (which we’d inevitably shown ourselves into previously) as well as a few grisly anecdotes.
The exercise yard was bleak.
As part of the development process an archaeological dig took place in the exercise yard. Turns out all the prisoners who were executed here were also buried here. It was deep with bodies.
Human bone fragments still litter the courtyard…
One corner of the exercise yard was hidden from general sight. The things that must have happened in this little recess… one of the things was scratching your name into the wall, people have been doing it for a long time…
The main landings. Apologies if it’s a bit pic heavy they were very photogenic!
A new(ish) looking corridor leads to the visiting areas
Although modern, and giving outside visitors a impression of civility, the visiting area was completely soulless and not at all representative of the architecture beyond.
It was quite heartbreaking to see the visiting area for kids.
Chapel:
Slop down!
Thanks for looking.
Fully Decommissioned
