Marshalsea Prison was a prison in South London. In the 19^th Century, it was home to many debtors, but it didn’t just imprison debtors. Famously, Charles Dickens’ father, John, was held here. He was imprisoned in 1824, when Dickens was only twelve years old. Dickens was then sent out to make money for his family to repay his father’s debt. This experience impacted much of Dickens’ writing, specifically his novel, Little Dorrit.

In Marshalsea Prison, the prisoner’s debts increased with time. The prison was privately owned, like most prisons at the time. Because it was privately owned, the inmates were charged for rent, food, and other necessary items. To add to their debts was the price of having a lawyer or an attorney. Families were often forced to live in the prison together because they had no where else to go. Children were sent to make money to pay off the debts, like Dickens. However, if the prisoners had some money there were restaurants and shops available for them. Even in the prisons there was a separation between the actual poor (those who couldn’t pay for rent) and those who were foolish with their money (those who spent more than they had). I imagine some of those in the debtor’s prison were more privileged than others, like those who had the money to go to the shops and restaurants.

This prison had brick barracks where they kept the debtors. It had eight numbered houses that were three stories. In those eight houses, there were fifty-six rooms. These rooms were about ten and a half feet square and eight to nine feet tall. The rooms had boarded floors, a fireplace, and a glazed window. However, the rooms were so small that they only could fit one bed in them. At one point, there were roughly four people per room, four people per bed. The living conditions were described as “cramped and constricted.”

To me, this prison is an example of the differences in class. It is shown even among the debtors. Some could pay the rent, some couldn’t. Some could pay for the shops, some couldn’t. The experiences in the debtors’ prison are a shadow in most of Dickens’ writings. It impacted him and was an issue he addressed regularly.

Works Cited

"Engraving of the Marshalsea Prison, where Dickens's father was imprisoned." British Library.

Philpotts, Trey. "The Real Marshalsea." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Lynn M. Zott, vol. 113, Gale, 2002. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420045645/LitRC?u=utahvalley&sid=ebsco&xid=b303b03f. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021. Originally published in The Dickensian, vol. 87, no. 3, Autumn 1991, pp. 133-145.