Bridewell: The Palace that became a Prison

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

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4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

In the heart of Shakespeare's London, there was a palace that had become a prison: Bridewell. Professor Duncan Salkeld has explored the records of this notorious destination for the poor and the indigent, vagrants, prostitutes, and the idle. In this episodes of Not Just the Tudors, he shares with Professor Suzannah Lipscomb his fascinating findings about the wayward and the unruly . These include 'Black Luce', a brothel madam probably of African heritage, who has been suggested as a candidate for the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets.

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0:00.0	If you've ever seen Holbine's magnificent painting, the Ambassadors painted in 1533 and
0:08.8	now hanging at the National Gallery in London, you all have glimpsed inside the palace
0:14.0	of Bridewell. Bridewell Palace on the Thames was just south of Fleet Street and St Bride's
0:19.6	Church and it was built by Cardinal Thomas Walsy for Henry VIII and in the early 1520s
0:25.5	the king used it as one of his main London homes. In the 1530s, after Walsy died, the palace
0:30.8	was leased to the French Ambassador and after Henry VIII's death, it took on another function
0:36.9	altogether. So to discuss Bridewell and its later inhabitants, I'm delighted to be joined
0:42.6	by Professor Duncan Scalkel. Duncan is Professor Emeritus of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature
0:55.0	at the University of Chitchester and visiting Professor at the University of Rahamton. And
1:00.2	he's one of those exemplary literary scholars who historicise their work. He's an absolute
1:05.1	expert on Shakespeare's world and his books include Shakespeare among the quarter-sans and
1:10.8	his latest is Shakespeare and London which draws out historical details of London life in
1:15.5	Shakespeare's time. So may we start there, Duncan, can you give us a snapshot of the London
1:21.3	Shakespeare new? Well, thank you very much. The London Shakespeare new, well, his early plays seemed
1:27.0	to have this sense of excitement and adventure of a new arrival in a big city looking round and
1:34.2	the person usually ends up falling in love and some kind of chaotic hilarity follows. Shakespeare
1:40.6	probably was very excited at the thought of going to London after all a very famous
1:45.2	strafford person had already done that. So Hugh Klopton, who was a textile trader and became
1:51.0	mayor of London and in fact built new place which Shakespeare later bought. And so I think Shakespeare
1:56.9	must have found London a bit of a wonder really at first. Bigger than strafford imposing buildings,
2:03.6	the Thames much bigger than the Aevan. And it's quite possible actually that he visited London even
2:09.8	as early as 1589, his father would have made some trips now and then some legal processes that
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