Ghastly history of London’s execution dock where pirates met their fate

Way before the days of reality TV Londoners used to bring the whole family to witness seafaring criminals meet a grizzly end at public hangings. What became known as Execution Dock was in fact a gallows erected on the bank of the Thames at Wapping, East London used for the most gruesome capital punishments.

For 400 years pirates, smugglers and mutineers found guilty of crimes against the crown would be hauled from Marshalsea Prison or Newgate Prison to take their final breaths at this horrible site. Pirates had the horrific punishment of being hanged from a short rope so that instead of their neck snapping as they fell they would be slowly strangled to death.

Strange to us now, the public would gather on the bank or even pull up boats nearby to watch the ill-fated men die. Even after their death the cruelty continued.

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Their lifeless bodies would be left on display long enough for at least three tides to submerge their heads before being taken down. And if that wasn’t already grim enough, the famous Captain Kidd had an even worse ending.

After being convicted of piracy and murder in 1701, Scottish sailor William Kidd was hanged, not once but twice at the dock. The first time the short rope snapped, and while some onlookers took this as a sign from god that he should be forgiven, the executioner hanged him a second time.

His body was left to the elements at Tilbury Point as a warning to others who might dare to break the law on journeys across the seas. Last used in 1830 for the executions of mutineers George Davis and William Watts, the dock’s precise location is disputed.

Some say the large letter E that can still be seen on the nearby Old Sun Wharf building on Narrow Street means this was where Execution Dock once stood. Other historians the dock where so many met their end was on a site where Wapping Overground Station is now.

The actual gallows used are long gone but those with a taste for London’s dark history can find a replica outside the Prospect of Whitby pub.