Building MPM652 - Former Her Majesty's Prison Kingston

Former prison built 1874-77, designed by George Rake. Kingston prison replaced the early-19th century Borough Gaol in Penny Street Old Portsmouth. It closed in 2013. [1]

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The building is in a castle style, fashionable at the time. It is an important early example of poured mass concrete for all walls and foundations. The concrete is faced with Plymouth Stone rangework. The more important and public blocks have Doulton stone ashlar dressings. The cell blocks have blue Stourbridge brick dressings, except for the window cills. The enclosure wall is flint-faced externally, with shallow Stourbridge brick buttresses, bonding-courses and parapet. Internally, the cell blocks are, broadly, as built. The prison was the last to be built on the star or radiating plan. The cells line a central open hall, with iron galleries and a half floor providing access to the above-ground floors. Two cell blocks have basements, partial originally, but extended in 1998 in A wing. There are few surviving internal fittings or details from the original build. The chapel block has been gutted above the ground floor and two floors inserted. The chapel roof is an open timber-truss design, designed to be seen but now above the ceilings of the inserted second floor. The roofs of the cell blocks have been renewed completely, and the roof of the single-storey B Wing has been replaced by a first floor. The gatehouse complex has been gutted, and new wings added. There are no surviving interiors. [2]

<1> Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.

<2> Davenport, Peter, 2016, Kingston Prison Portsea, Portsmouth: Historic Building Record (Unpublished document). SPM402.