View report page

41
Correction for the County of Middlesex, such money being raised
by means of annuities payable out of the county rates.
The site of oldbath-fields prison was therefore purchased and
the building erected thereon out of money provided by the ratepayers
of the county.
In 1877 the Prisons Act was passed. By that Act all prisons
were vested in Her Majesty, and acquired without making any
payment or compensation to the ratepayers for their previous
outlay, the Government thereafter undertaking the cost of
maintenance.
Under the Act, the Coldbath-fields Prison and its site, about
acres, was acquired by the Government from the Justices
representing the ratepayers without payment or consideration.
By Section 64 of the Local Government Act, 1888, the
property of the Justices became vested in the London County
Council, as their successors.
It was not at the date of the Prisons Act contemplated to give
up the sites of the prisons in the Metropolis; but being a general
public act, applicable to all prisons in the country, the Act
provides by Section 34, that when a prison to which the Act
applies is discontinued, the Secretary of State shall offer to reconvey
the same to the prison authority to which the prison
originally belonged, (and of which, in the case of the Coldbathfields
Prison, the London County Council are the successors),
and on the terms by that section prescribed, viz., on payment of
£120 in respect of each prisoner belonging to such prison
authority, for whom cell accommodation was provided in such discontinued
prison at the time of the passing of the Act. The
Section further provides that if the prison authority decline to
accept such offer, or fail to comply with the terms thereof, the
prison “shall be sold by the Secretary of State, and the overplus
(if any) of the proceeds of the sale, after the expenses of the sale
have been paid, and the amount prescribed by the said section
has been paid into the Exchequer, shall be rendered to the prison
authority to which the prison originally belonged." The site
and prison are still, and have always remained since the Act of
1877, subject to this direction of sale. Such a direction of sale
does not appear to include a power of leasing to the Post Office
or any other authority or person, or the dealing with the
property other than by public sale. The interests of the ratepayers
were so far guarded and recognised that any surplus
arising from the sale over and above the amount, referred to and
the expenses of sale, is reserved and made payable to the London
County Council as representing the ratepayers.
The report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the