HM Prison Belmarsh is a high security prison in Thamesmead, Eastern London, England. Operational since 2 April 1991, the facility can hold 921 inmates. It has been used to detain a number of people indefinitely without trial under the provisions of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. Doctors and human rights groups have raised serious concerns about the mental and physical health of these prisoners.

Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B British local prison (ie. an establishment that receives prisoners from the courts, either on remand or after sentencing). It is located on the south of Wormwood Scrubs in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was built in the 1880s. It currently houses 1167 prisoners in five wings. There have been numerous fights, disturbances and protest acts in the prison's history.

HM Prison Pentonville is a prison built in 1842 in North London. Its design was influenced by Jeremy Bentham's panopticon concept.
The first modern prison opened in London in 1816 - the new Millbank prison. It had separate cells for 860 prisoners, and proved satisfactory (to the authorities at least) thus commencing a programme of prison building to deal with the rapid increase in prisoner numbers occasioned by the ending of capital punishment for many crimes and a steady reduction in the use of transportation.

HM Prison Holloway is a women's prison in the London Borough of Islington, London, United Kingdom.
It was opened in 1852 as a mixed prison, but due to growing demand for space for female prisoners became female-only in 1903. Prisoners included suffragettes such as Constance Markeivicz and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington. In the 20th century, it was the site of five executions, most famously that of Ruth Ellis on July 13, 1955 - she was the last woman in Britain to be hanged.

The original buildings date from 1819. In 1862 the prison was sold to the Government and converted into a Prison for females. Twenty years later it was again converted, this time as a military prison, and in 1898, when it was returned to the Prison Commissioners, the buildings were enlarged and improved and made the trial and remand prison for the whole of the London area.

HM Prison Wandsworth is a prison in Wandsworth in south London, England. It was built in 1851 when it was known as the Surrey House of Correction. It was designed according to the humane Panopticon principle with a number of corridors radiating from a central control point and each prisoner having toilet facilities. Subsequently, the toilets were removed to increase prison capacity and the prisoners had to engage in the humiliating process of 'slopping-out' until 1996. Wandsworth contains two wings.