Clink Prison Museum


This one-time private jail, known as the Liberty of the Clink, was used to detain debtors, prostitutes, thieves and numerous Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation. The museum relates the story of its most (in)famous inmates and explains at length – with props, storyboards and original objects – the many ways they could be tortured. Not suitable for children under seven years.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Golden Hinde

0.07 MILES

Step aboard this replica of privateer Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde, the warship that circumnavigated the globe in 1577–1580. Kids will love exploring…

2. Southwark Cathedral

0.12 MILES

Southwark Cathedral, a mostly Victorian construction but with a history dating back many centuries earlier, was the nearest church to what was once the…

3. The Rose Playhouse

0.15 MILES

The Rose Playhouse, for which Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson wrote some of their greatest plays and in which Shakespeare learned his craft, is unique:…

4. Borough Market

0.16 MILES

For a thousand years, a market has existed at the southern end of London Bridge, making this still-busy ancient gathering point a superb spectacle…

7. Crossbones Garden

0.23 MILES

This peaceful, if slightly ramshackle, garden is an unconsecrated burial ground where those living on the margins of society were buried until 1853. It's…

8. Shakespeare's Globe

0.23 MILES

Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…