In 1831 Bristol suffered the worst civil disturbances in its history during the political reform riots. Most of the city, including Queen Square and the Mansion House fell under mob rule.
The New Gaol was attacked by rioters who breached its iron gates after battering them with sledge hammers and crowbars for three-quarters of an hour, allowing a small boy to get inside and draw back its bolts.
'The force of the mob was every moment fearfully increasing, a dense mass had collected, and on the other side of the river, wherever the eye could range. Thousands were in motion,' wrote the Revd John Eagles.
Around 170 prisoners were freed and joined the mob, the gaol's treadmill and gallows were set upon and were thrown into the adjacent New Cut. The prison was then set on fire by the mob, the flames could be seen as far away as Wales.
Order was eventually restored to the city by troops from Gloucester who opened fire on the mob, killing around 130 of them. In the following days those arrested for their part in the riots were tried before the Bristol Court.
Five received the death penalty. Christopher Davies, John Kayes, Richard Vines, Thomas Gregory and William Clarke were all sentenced to be hanged over the entrance of the New Gaol On Friday 27th January 1832, four of the condemned men were led out to the top of the gatehouse where the open-air scaffold had been erected.
Despite a petition to King William IV signed by 10,000 Bristolians, 'including several merchants of the greatest respectability,' there was to be no reprieve.
However, the day before his execution, Richard Vines was declared to be an idiot. His sentence was changed to transportation to Australia.
The assembled crowd were sympathetic to the plight of the condemned men and many of the special constables reportedly wept alongside large sections of the crowd. The jail was rebuilt, but was closed for good in 1887 following the Prison Reform Act. On Sunday, 7th May 2000, a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the people who were hung from this gateway or transported for their part in the riots.
All that remains of the gaol today is the gatehouse - it was last used in 1883 and sold to the Great Western Railway in 1895 - is the flat roofed grey gatehouse and a few yards of wall beside the Cumberland Road.
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