View of St George's Gardens, with its entrance on Tabard Street, Southwark. Opened as a public garden in 1882 on the site of St George's Churchyard. View includes lawns, shrubs, trees and a gardener's hut with a broom propped outside. At the rear is an early-eighteenth century wall; all that remains of Marshalsea Prison. The wall is Grade II listed, number 1378370. Originally the site of the White Lion prison. From at least 1580, prison facilities were provided by the White Lion Inn, and it was used for the site of the rebuilt Marshalsea Prison opened here in 1811. Housing Southwark's debtors, trespassers, smugglers, and court-martialled Admiralty members, often with their families. Charles Dickens's father spent time here as a debtor, which had a major impact on Dickens's future writing career. He wrote "Little Dorrit" based on his own experiences as a child, with her father also a Marshalsea debtor prisoner. The prison was closed in 1842, and demolished in 1849.
