2-699-168 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Place of Execution in Old Smithfield', (c1872). Bundles of wood being piled up for burnings at the stake. In the Middle Ages, Smithfield was a broad grassy area known as Smooth Field, just outside the walls of the City of London. For centuries Smithfield was the main site for the public execution of heretics and dissidents. Sir William Wallace was executed here in 1305. From Old and New London, Vol. II: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places, by Walter Thornbury. [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., London, Paris & New York]