Like its City counterpart, the Westminster Bridewell was intended as a "house of correction" for the compulsory employment of able-bodied but indolent paupers.

Built in 1618, it was enlarged in 1655, and during the reign of Queen Anne, its regime was extended to cover the incarceration of criminals.

In 1834 the original Bridewell was replaced by a larger prison, on a different site, 8 acres (32,000 m2) in area, south of Victoria Street and close to Vauxhall Bridge Road.

At the back of Middlesex Guildhall in Little Sanctuary is the 17th-century "Stone Gateway", positioned there by the Greater London Council in 1969.

However, due to poor management, the regime was changed in 1850 and the Bridewell then housed only women and convicted boys under the age of seventeen.