London The Executioner’s City
London: The Executioner’s City by David Brandon, published by History Press Limited in 2007, offers a detailed exploration of the historical significance of executions in London. This edition spans 328 pages and is presented in English. The book examines the various locations throughout the city where executions took place, highlighting Tyburn Fields as the most notorious site. It delves into the relationship between crime and punishment in London, illustrating how the presence of public executions shaped the city’s identity and the perceptions of its inhabitants over generations.
Readers will find a vivid portrayal of London’s darker history, where a diverse array of individuals, from royalty to common criminals, faced public punishment. The narrative reveals how the spectacle of executions was woven into the fabric of daily life, with the approval of crowds often accompanying these events. Through its exploration of themes related to history and social science, this book sheds light on the complexities of justice and societal norms in Great Britain, making it a significant contribution to the understanding of London’s past.
Official synopsis Publisher
Tyburn Fields is the best known site of execution in London, but London may be aptly named the executioner’s city, so many were the places where executions could and did occur. London: The Executioner’s City reveals the capital as a place where the bodies of criminals defined the boundaries of the city and heads on poles greeted patrons on London Bridge. The ubiquity of crime and punishment was taken for granted by countless generations of the capital’s inhabitants, though it seems to have done little to stem the tide of criminality that has always threatened to engulf the city. The book is a powerful evocation of the dark side of London’s history, where the great and not so good, the poor and helpless, the cruel and the idealistic crowd together to be punished in public. A king and more than one queen, heretics, archbishops, pirates, poisoners, plotters, murderers, and a cook executed for selling putrid fish met death by hanging, beheading, burning, or boiling in London, and on most occasions the crowd roared its approval.
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