Public Executions in London
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2022
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
For at least 700 years, presumed criminals were publicly executed in London. Such occasions were often gruesome, gory and very popular.
A new exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands explores this grisly history - who the recipients of capital punishment were, the places where they met their end and how they died, and the crimes that were punishable by death.
In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb tours the exhibition with curator Tom Ardill.
**WARNING: This episode contains graphic descriptions of executions**
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For at least 700 years, presumed criminals were publicly executed in London. |
| 0:09.2 | These executions were gruesome, gory and very popular. |
| 0:14.7 | A new exhibition at the Museum of London in Docklands is exploring this grizzly history. |
| 0:22.0 | They have identified as far as possible those who died. |
| 0:25.6 | They have identified the many places used as execution sites far more than we previously thought across London. |
| 0:31.9 | They've looked at the crimes punishable by the death penalty and the different methods used to dispatch people. |
| 0:39.3 | On top of that they explore the emotions around death, the experience of prisoners approaching death |
| 0:45.3 | and the culture and economy that grew up around the death penalty. |
| 0:49.4 | I went to see it and met up with curator Tom Ardill for a private tour of this marvellously macabre exhibition. |
| 0:58.4 | I just ought to say that this episode contains some graphic descriptions of execution. |
| 1:05.0 | So if you're having a bite to eat or are feeling a bit squeamish, you may want to fast forward through some of those bits. |
| 1:20.0 | Tom, thank you so much for agreeing to show me around this exhibition. |
| 1:24.5 | So this is an exhibition focusing on public executions in London. |
| 1:30.2 | I'm aware that we're at the Museum of London Docklands and there is another site for the Museum of London |
| 1:35.9 | which is indeed about to move to Smithville, the site of execution. |
| 1:39.4 | What was the rationale for this exhibition? |
| 1:41.3 | Why did you want to put it on? |
| 1:42.6 | Why did you choose the parameters that you did? |
| 1:44.6 | Crime and punishment seems to be a big thing. |
| 1:47.2 | The Museum of London, it's something we've returned to over the years. |
| 1:49.9 | We had an exhibition a few years ago called Crime Museum which was about the Police Collection. |
| 1:54.6 | I came to that one. |
... |
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