Historedia
Episode 3 of 3

Public Hanging

When
26 May 1868
Where
Newgate Prison
Part of
Event of 1868: Fenian bomber Michael Barrett becomes the last person publicly hanged in the Uni

Barrett was publicly hanged outside Newgate Prison on 26 May 1868, the last such execution in England.

Barrett was hanged by William Calcraft on the morning of 26 May 1868 outside Newgate Prison. A crowd of two thousand booed and sang as his body dropped. He was the last man publicly hanged in England, with the practice ending from 29 May 1868.

Sources

  1. Michael Barrett (Fenian) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03
  2. Clerkenwell explosion Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-28

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.