The Clink Prison Museum sits on the site of England's oldest gaol, which operated from 1144 to 1780 as the private penitentiary of the Bishops of Winchester.

The bishops owned much of medieval Bankside, and their most profitable business was licensing the area's brothels, or "stews" as they were known. The prostitutes who worked these establishments were called Winchester Geese, and those who displeased the bishop found themselves locked in his prison alongside brawling actors from the nearby theatres.

The name "Clink" comes from the Saxon word "clench," meaning chain, and gave English the expression "in the clink." Charles Dickens knew this grim place well, setting the Gordon Riots of 1780 in his novel Barnaby Rudge on these very streets. Today's museum displays the graphic punishments and torture devices once used here, including a skeleton hung in a cage.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace how the bishops' spiritual authority transformed into commercial power, using the prison to explore Bankside's evolution from medieval "Liberty" beyond City control to Shakespeare's theatrical playground, where religious dissenters, actors and Winchester Geese all risked imprisonment.