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SECTION XVII.: EXTERIOR ANNULAR WELL. ‡ - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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SECTION XVII.

EXTERIOR ANNULAR WELL.

All round the polygonal part of the building, runs an annular trench, which may be called the Exterior Annular Well, and its floor the Exterior Annular Area. In width I make it 12 feet; less than that not being sufficient to afford length enough to the line of communication in that part between the inside of the building and the look-out in the yards. The floor, for the sake of carrying off the water, is 8 inches lower than the floor of the prisoners’ passage through the building, which, as mentioned in speaking of the exit, is itself 10 inches below that of the interior annular well.*

It is bounded all round by a wall, which, after serving for the mere support of the earth from the area below to the surface of the ground above, is crowned by a parapet, reaching about 4 feet above that surface. This 4 feet added to the 7½ feet, and the 1½ feet, i. e. to the 9 feet, makes 13 feet, the height which a prisoner who had let himself down into the well would have to climb up before he could gain the yards.

It is filled up and cut through in one part only, viz. at and by the line of communication above mentioned, running in the same direction with the diametrical passage.

The uses of it are as follow:—

1. To give light and air to the sunken story under the cells.

2. To prevent prisoners from escaping, upon the supposition of their having let themselves down from the windows. It answers in this point of view the purpose of a ditch in fortification on the outside of the building, in the same manner as the intermediate well that runs parallel to it in the inside.

3. To reduce the ascent which the chapel-visitors have to perform in order to gain the chapel, and to afford a place for a kitchen and other such offices to the governor’s house, without sacrificing a ground-floor to that purpose, and lodging him and his family at an inconvenient height.

4 To afford all round a commodious place for cellaring, capable of being enlarged indefinitely as occasion may arise.

Were there no such trench cut on the outside, what would be the Consequence?—Either—

1. The building remaining in all other particulars the same, the ground must be brought close to it all round;—or,

2. The story under the cells must be omitted altogether, as well in the cellular part as in the inspection-tower;—or,

3. That story must be raised above ground, and the whole building made so much higher.

In all three cases, the 2d and 4th of the above advantages would be lost. A prisoner who had let himself down from any of the windows would find nothing capable of preventing him from going on to the exterior wall: the convenience of cellaring would be lost: and, the floor of the lowest story of cells being even with the ground, there would be nothing to hinder the prisoners in the yards from holding promiseuous converse with the prisoners on that story of the cells.

In the first case, too, the space under the cells would be reduced to the condition of mere cellaring: not fit for any person to abide in, or pay frequent visits to, on account of the absolute want of free air; debarred in a great degree from the light, of which the intermediate well would at that depth afford but a very scanty measure. The warehouses under the lodge would likewise suffer in point of ventilation, by being deprived of the draught which might be occasionally made by throwing open the windows of the rooms under the cells, at the same time with the doors opening from them into the intermediate area.

In the second case, there would be no place for lighting fires under the cells; no place for warehouses anywhere; no means of conveying the prisoners into the yards, without giving them the faculty of promiscuous intercourse, by carrying them in their passage to and from their staircases abreast of every cell in the lowermost story of cells. There would be no diametrical passage; no means of conveying bulky articles into the cells and store-rooms overhead, through the intermediate area; and that most indispensable of all apartments—that vital part of the whole establishment—the inspector’s lodge, would be cut to pieces and destroyed.

In the third case, which is the least unfavourable one, the second and fourth, of the above advantages, as already mentioned, would be sacrificed, as also the third: 8 feet would be added to an ascent already greater than could be wished; and no advantage worth mentioning would be gained.

[]This well, except in its width, is but little different from the sunken wells or areas which are so common in the front of the London houses.

[]See Section Outlets. It might even be wider without inconvenience, and without any objection but the extra expense, which is only that of digging and paving. This degree of width, it is true, is not absolutely necessary anywhere else than close to the line of communication, to afford room for it to rise by a staircase to a level with the ground. But on account of light and air, it were better not to narrow the area anywhere else.

[* ]Total, 18 inches lower than the interior well. It may be brought to this depth from 12 inches by a gentle slope.

[]The quantity of building would be the same; and the saving of the small expense of digging would be at least counterbalanced by the additional expense of scaffolding and workmen’s loss of time in ascending and descending. The only saving would be that of the sunk wall of 9 feet high for the support of the ground—a purpose for which the slightest thickness of walling would be sufficient.