Town Hall Prisons

Town Hall Prisons or Lock Ups were used for the temporary detention of people often in rural parts of England and Wales. These prisons/lock ups tended to be small buildings, intended to hold maybe one or two prisoners.They were often used for the confinement of drunks who were usually released the next day or to hold people being brought before the local magistrate the next day.

Lock-ups have acquired a range of local nicknames that include blind-house, bone-house, bridewell, cage, jug, kitty, lobby, guard-house, round-house, tower and watch-house, to name but a few. Leeds Town Hall/Lock up is often referred to as 'The Bridewell' and took its name from Bridewell Palace, London, originally a residence of Henry VIII, which later became a poorhouse and prison. The term frequently refers to a city's main detention facility, usually in close proximity to a courthouse, as in Nottingham, Leeds, Gloucester, Bristol, Dublin and Cork.

In 1725 Leeds Town Gaol or Bridewell prison was located on the corner of Kirkgate and Briggate. It was described in 1777 as having "four good rooms, and a small one, no chimney, no cart, no water, no sewer." In 1815 the Leeds Prison, Court House and Office were situated at the corner of Park Row and West Street.

The prison at Armley in Leeds was built in 1847, this was the Leeds Borough Gaol and different to the Town Hall Gaol. Records from Stanley Royd Asylum occassionally refer to inmates coming from the Bridewell in Leeds where they were detained prior to admission.

There are plans for some of the 19th century lock ups in West Yorkshire (QD3/537-540) and minutes for the Lock Up Committee, 1843-1859 (QC/4)