Between 1700 and 1900 the British government stopped punishing the bodies of London’s convicts and increasingly sought to exile them and/or reform their minds. From hanging, branding and whipping the response to crime shifted to transportation and imprisonment. By the nineteenth century, judges chose between two contrasting forms of punishments: exile and forced labour in Australia, or incarceration in strictly controlled ‘reformatory’ prisons at home. This exhibition, based on material from London Metropolitan Archives and the AHRC funded Digital Panopticon research project, traces the impact of punishments on individual lives. It follows the men, women and children convicted in London from their crimes and trials through to their experiences of punishment and their subsequent lives.This exhibition was contracted by and displayed at the London Metropolitan Archives. It received additional funding from the AHRC Digital Panopticon network as well as specific impact and engagement funding from The University of Sheffield and The University of Sussex
