A felon taken to his death in 1818

Until its demolition in 1819, the city's medieval South Gate served as a prison; conditions there were notoriously bad. The painting by Mrs Mary Drew shows the last occasion on which a convicted prisoner was taken from it to be hanged. Surrounded by a large crowd, a carriage leaves the prison taking Richard Holmyard for execution to the gallows in Magdalen Road in 1818. Holmyard had committed forgery against the City Bank.