Exterior of the Surrey House of Correction at Wandsworth

Book illustration showing the exterior of the Surrey House of Correction at Wandsworth, from page 398 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. The authors travelled to Wandsworth by train, alighting at "the little rustic station" of Clapham Common. They were not impressed by the exterior view: "The House of Correction at Wandsworth has, externally, little to recommend it to the eye, having none of the fine, gloomy character and solemnity of Newgate, nor any of the castellated grandeur of the City Prison at Holloway; neither can it be said to partake of the massive simplicity of the exterior of Tothill Fields, not to possess any feature about it that will bear comparison with the noble portcullis gateway at Pentonville." However "the situation is admirably chosen for the health of the inmates. Built upon a gravelly soil, upon a large open tract of country, it seems to preculde the possibility of an epidemic ever raging among the prisoners."