Under lock and key
The Old Prison House is ideal for a comfortable incarceration
BEING a prisoner in your own home is normally viewed as a negative – but not everyone sees it that way. Since the turn of the century, Gregory Lovelock has been ‘detained’ in the B-Listed Old Prison House in Wigtown. His home was designed by Thomas Brown Jnr, architect to the Prison Board of Scotland, and completed in 1848.
It served as a jail for only a few decades, until it was adapted for use as a police station by the Wigtownshire Constabulary in the late 1870s.
Of course, they kept the four cells for local miscreants – male and female – who may have found themselves in need of secure overnight accommodation.
The façade of the Old Prison House can trace its roots to those four cells, as the eight chimneys which dominate the property are visual evidence of an elaborate ventilation network.
Based on a prototype system introduced at Pentonville Prison in London in 1842, the towering stacks delivered fresh air to the cells, while removing stale air from the same area.
There was not exactly an over-provision of heating, as only the cell reserved for ladies boasted a fireplace.
The building was a wreck when Mr Lovelock happened upon it 17 years ago.
He recalled: ‘It was all boarded up and it had lain empty for years. The day I viewed it, a woman showed me around the property with a torch. I came back alone the next day, one of those dreich Dumfries and Galloway days you get.
‘I said if it feels odd and spooky, I won’t take it. But I discovered it had not been a hanging prison, so there were no deaths here. I thought, “It feels nice”.’
His sterling renovation efforts have paid off handsomely, producing a comfortable family home that does well to shake off its institutional past. The spacious family kitchen/diner, for example, enjoys two eastfacing windows and a north-facing French window, all with working shutters.
It also has an induction hob, integrated double oven and a sandstone feature fireplace with a wood-burning stove within.
The main living room is a sight more comfy than when it served as the Prison Keeper’s Parlour.
There’s a lovely Victorian slate fire surround with cast iron grate to toast your toes on and through three east-facing windows – on a clear day – you can make out the Cumbrian Hills.
Try as you might, you still can’t escape the building’s previous incarnation. The estate agent’s brochure lists bedroom two of three as ‘the former debtors’ cell’ even though it appears a lovely room in which to spend your incarceration.
It’s unlikely any prisoner enjoyed a soak in the roll top bath or a refreshing shower in the bathroom.
The cell area is fairly extensive and permissions are in place to extend it to a selfcontained holiday let. But can you honestly see tourists queuing up for a weekend of solitary confinement?
Mr Lovelock, a New Zealander, remembers happier times in the dungeons. He said: ‘I celebrated my 60th birthday in the cells. We put down a dance floor in Cell 3 and fitted a bar in Cell 4.
‘We’ve also had a wedding down there and last June 25, we held a Summer Christmas Party in Cells 3 and 4.’
In 2011, a local company used the cells to stage a play, based on two women who had been incarcerated for shoplifting and abandoning a baby. The audience at each performance was restricted to nine.
A funny way to use your home? Anyone suggesting such a thing wants locking up.