HM Prison Reading is now closed but has re opened for the first time to the public as artists, writers, and performers respond to its most notorious inmate: Oscar Wilde. His time in jail was devastating, the work produced as a result is enduring. Incarcerated in solitary confinement he wrote De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas; on release he produced his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
At this site, the penal regime Wilde suffered is explored through archives, leading through to the installation of new works by artists such as Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, and Steve McQueen in the previously inaccessible cells and corridors.
In some cells, are letters on the theme of state-enforced separation from around the world by writers including Binyavanga Wainaina, Ai Weiwei, and Anne Carson.
This exhibition brings together that which Wilde's final works so eloquently delineated: the pain of separation, the excruciatingly slow passage of time, betrayal, redemption, and love.
It was built in 1844 as the Berkshire County Gaol in the heart of Reading on the site of the former county prison, alongside the site of Reading Abbey and beside the River Kennet.
Designed by George Gilbert Scot it was based on London's New Model Prison at Pentonville with a cruciform shape, and is a good example of early Victorian prison architecture. The Pentonville design of 1842 was based on the design of Eastern State Penotentiary of 1829 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It was designed to carry out what was the very latest penal technique of the time, known as the separate System. This kept the inmates in solitary confinement for 22 hours per day with only short breaks for exercise and chapel. Previously prisoners had been in dormitories but it was felt these encouraged the spread of diseases and poisoned minds. As a county gaol, its forecourt served as the site for public executions, the first one in 1845 before a crowd of 10,000; after1868 executions took place in private inside, the last one in 1913.
In 1973 Reading was re-designated as a local prison and around that time its old castle wall was removed. In 1992 it became a Remand Centre and Young Offenders Institution, holding prisoners between the ages of 18 and 21 years. Accommodation at the prison consisted of a mixture of single and double occupancy cells contained on three wings. There was also a further residential unit (Kennet wing) of single occupancy cells for low security prisoners. On 4 September 2013, it was announced that HM Prison Reading would close by the end of that year, and the prison formally closed in November.
There have been calls for the prison building to be preserved as a tourist attraction, and Reading Council have confirmed that they intend to retain the complex. In June 2014 it was proposed that the site could be converted into a theatre venue. However, in November 2015 it was announced by Chancellor George Osborne and Justice Secretary Michael Gove that the site was to be sold to housing developers.
In May 2016 it was announced that the former prison will be made available as an arts venue for the Reading 2016 Year of Culture programme.
So we have to wait and see what comes next. Oxford Prison is now a posh hotel, I think the Osborne plans may go ahead in a similar mode. This would be a travesty in my view. This building should be enjoyed by all.
Here is the "en suite" of a two to three man cell. A total disgrace in 2013. Take away liberty yes, when needed to protect society, but not dignity. This helps no one. And rehabilitates no one.
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 – 1900) was an Anglo-Irish aristrocrat and writer. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.
Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Day and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.
At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to the absolute prohibition of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry prosecuted for libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The charge carried a penalty of up to two years in prison. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and imprisoned for two years. There is, I understand, uncertainty as to what extent Wilde's downfall was brought on by the fact he had concensual sex with adult men (a crime in those times; incredible to me today) or the fact that he was a paedophile. It seems certain he had sex with teenage working class boys. Their ability to consent on an equal footing seem dubious. This throws a shadow on the writer's genius. But as Oscar himself said, there is no such thing as moral art, it is just either good or bad.
In 1897, in Reading Gaol, Wilde wrote De Profundis, which was published in 1905, a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. His wife divorced him and he never saw his two children again. In gaol he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. Prison broke him. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46. Read more about Oscar Wilde and his life, his trial and his death here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde.
I note with interest that Oscar Wilde requested St Augstine's Confessions when in gaol, this work was a key influence on Stanley Spencer who was a child during the era. See my blog post. http://carrying-on-as-best-i-can.blogspot.com/2016/08/oxford-unitarians-visit-sandham.html
I also note a copy of the orginal edition of De Profundis
Some other interesting exhibits
This is the prison chapel.
Read about the plinth here
You can listen to recodings of some of the live readings on head phones.
Nan Golding made a touching video of the 'happiest old gay in the village'. A 91 year old man who was pardoned having been convicted of the same offence as Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
Steve McQueen's work also explores confinement and colonialism. He visited Reading Prison and was inspired to produce Weight the metal bed with gold plated mosquito netting shown below.
What a great show, particularly so as I bumped into another friend there and got a bit hug which amused the others in the cell
Then it was a quick sarnie in the Oracle and a whizz round the shops for my annual clothes purchase. Yuck. I hate shopping. The assistants in John Lewis are totally fun and lovely I must say!
Home via the sardine can and Phyllis!
