Female convicts at work, during the silent hour, in Brixton Prison

Book illustration of female convicts at work, during the silent hour, in Brixton Prison, drawn from a photograph by Herbert Watkins, 179 Regent Street and reproduced on page 197 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. "From eleven till twelve, the women located in the wings pursue their needlework in silence, and seated at their doors; and then it is a most peculiar sight to see the two hundred female convicts ranged along the sides of the arcade, and in each of the three long balconies that run one above the other round the entire building, so that, look which way you will, on this side or on that, you behold nothing but long lines of convict women, each dressed alike, in their clean white caps, and dark, claret-brown gowns, and all with their work upon their knees, stitching away in the most startling silence, as if they were so many automata - the only noise, indeed, that is heard at such a time being the occasional tapping of one of the matrons' hammers upon the metal stove, as she cries, 'Silence there! Keep silence, women!' to some prisoners she detects whispering at the other end of the ward."