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1851 plan of Gloucester County Gaol
Gloucester Board of Health plan 1851
The prison underwent several alterations in its time. Between 1844–50 a new convict prison, based on the 'Pentonville' separate system, was built east of the gaol of 1791. It incorporated the original gatehouse, to which three-storey cellblocks were added on the north, south and west – a chapel linked it to the old prison. The addition increased the number of cells by 143 to a total of 489. Numerous other alterations were made in the mid-1800s, the most obvious – at least externally – being the addition of the Governor's house on the south perimeter wall facing Commercial Road in 1863. After the Prisons Act 1877, the gaol passed from the control of the county magistrates to the Home Office and the site became H.M. Prison Gloucester. Subsequently much redevelopment took place over the years but in 2013, the prison was closed and decommissioned, with the site being made available for redevelopment.
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