Reading, Berkshire the Obscure, as the temporary home of Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol from 1895 to 1897. While there, he wrote his letter "De Profundis". After his release, he lived in exile in France and wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", based on his experience of the execution of Charles Wooldridge, carried out in Reading Gaol whilst he was imprisoned there. Ricky Gervais, who is from Reading, made the film "Cemetery Junction", which, although filmed elsewhere in the UK, is set in 1970s Reading and is named after a busy junction in East Reading.
Horsemonger Lane Gaol Road), being renamed Surrey County Gaol (although its alternative name, the New Gaol, the gaol should not be confused with the New Prison, located north of the River Thames in Clerkenwell). The gaol was demolished in 1881 and the site is today a public park, Newington Gardens, adjacent to the present Inner London Crown Court, opened in January 1921. In 1849, Charles Dickens attended the public hangings outside the gaol of husband and wife Frederick and Maria Manning, who had killed a friend for his money and buried him under the kitchen floor. Dickens wrote to "The Times" condemning such