Clink Prison Museum is built upon the original site of the Clink Prison , which operated from 1144 to 1780. The prison served the Liberty of the Clink, a local manor area owned by the Bishop of Winchester rather than by the reigning monarch. As the Liberty owner, the Bishop kept all revenues from the Clink Liberty, and could put people in prison for failing to make their payments. As the Bishop, he could also imprison heretics.

Built on the original site, the Clink Prison Museum presents the scandalous truth of Old Bankside through a hands-on educational experience. There are opportunities to view archaeological artefacts, experience the sights, sounds and smells of the prison, handle torture devices, and to view and hear all about the tales of torment and many misfortunes of the inmates of the infamous Clink Prison.

During its remarkably long span, besides the usual drunken vagrants, vagabonds and other seemingly petty criminals, The Clink also housed more historically significant criminals.

Famous examples include Sir Thomas Wyatt The Younger (son of the Renaissance poet of the same name), who rebelled against Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary I; John Rogers, the man responsible for translating the Bible into English from Latin during the reign of the aforementioned Roman Catholic Queen; Royalist supporters during the English Civil War, and Puritans who went on to become the first Pilgrim Fathers, settlers of the New World in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts in the United States.

The origins of the name “The Clink” are possibly onomatopoeic, deriving from the sound of striking metal as the prison doors were bolted, or the sound of the blacksmith’s hammer closing the irons around the wrists or ankles of the prisoners, the rattling of the chains the prisoners wore.

Reference from web 

Did you know?

To say someone is “in clink”, means they have been sent to prison

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