Despite its aspirations to be more humanitarian (its redesign was by John Howard), it became notorious for its strict regime of silence[5] and its use of the treadmill.

The scandal was exposed in Parliament by the young radical MP Sir Francis Burdett, who used it as the basis of his campaign against the chair of the magistrates William Mainwaring and his son George in the 1802 and 1804 Middlesex parliamentary elections.

[citation needed] During the early 19th century, the prison temporarily housed members of the Cato Street Conspiracy.

In March 1877 a fire, which started in the bakehouse, destroyed the treadmill house; no prisoners were hurt but two firemen were injured.

In Samuel Butler's semi-autobiographical novel 'The Way of All Flesh' the hero, Ernest Pontifex is sentenced to six months hard labour in Coldbath Fields prison: chapters 64-70.