Bridewell Prison
Coordinates: 51°30′42.46″N 0°6′20.73″W / 51.5117944°N 0.1057583°W
Bridewell Palace in London was built as a residence of King Henry VIII and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. Given to the City of London Corporation by his son King Edward VI for use as an orphanage and place of correction for wayward women, Bridewell later became the first prison/poorhouse to have an appointed doctor. It was built on the banks of the Fleet River in the City of London between Fleet Street and the River Thames in an area today known as 'Bridewell Court' off New Bridge Street. By 1556 part of it had become a jail known as Bridewell Prison. It was reinvented with lodgings and was closed in 1855 and the buildings demolished in 1863–1864.
The name 'Bridewell' subsequently became an occasionally-used nickname for a police station or prison in England, Ireland and Scotland. It was also used as the name of the city jail in Chicago in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The palace was built on the site of the medieval St Bride's Inn directly south of the Roman-origins (currently Christopher Wren rebuild) of St Bride's Church at a cost of £39,000 for Henry VIII who treated it as a main London residence 1515–1523. Standing on the banks of the River Fleet, the related saint since the medieval age has been St Bride. The papal delegation had preliminary meetings here in 1528 before advising the pope on whether the King could divorce Catherine of Aragon. The building was a project of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
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