Gaol Gate

This is the rear of the gatehouse of the old Bristol Gaol, home to regular convicts and also to prisoners of war from battles with Napoleon; while they were housed here they dug the Avon New Cut. They'd have been faced with this view (minus the weeds etc) every morning as they set off.

In 1832 four men were hanged on the roof of this gatehouse for their part in the 1831 Bristol Riots, despite 10,000 people signing a petition asking for leniency. A few years ago someone put a nice brass plaque on the building to commemorate the hanged rioters.

A few weeks after that, someone stole the plaque.