St Sepulchre-without-Newgate as the "bells of Old Bailey". In 1605, London merchant tailor Mr. John Dowe paid the parish ₤50 to buy a handbell on the condition that it would be rung to mark the execution of a prisoner at the nearby gallows at Newgate. This handbell, known as the Execution Bell, now resides in a glass case to the south of the nave. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the clerk of St Sepulchre's was responsible for ringing a handbell outside the condemned man's cell in Newgate Prison the night before his execution and announcing the news by repeating the following
The Black Dog of Newgate brains in their distress. Intended as a morality tale preaching against the low behaviour and base living of the inmates of the prison, during a period when conditions for inmates were particularly horrific, the story was allegedly recounted by Luke Hutton to a stranger only described as "a poor Thin-gut fellow" in the Black Dog Public House. Hutton dedicated the work to the then Lord Chief Justice Sir John Pophame, and owing to its moral theme it may have helped to secure its release. There is some speculation as to whether this haunting of the Black Dog of Newgate is