This is page four of information about the Kingston Pen, this page about the Kingston Pen Dome.
If you would care to see the pages and photos in order here is page one.
The Kingston Pen Dome was built from 1859-1861 to tie together four of the men’s main cell blocks inside the pen.
In the centre of the Kingston Pen Dome was the guard’s control centre shown below. It struck me, while looking around the Dome, that the guards, too, spent much of their time locked up inside their own cell.
While they certainly trod the cell blocks regularly during their shift, much of the time was spent inside the control centre. This next image is part of what the guards would have seen looking up from inside the control centre.
When the Kingston Pen Dome was first added, our former guard / tour guide told us that the fencing visible in the image above and below was not part of the original design. From time to time the absence of that fending meant that an inmate would “take a dive” from an upper cell block and crash to the cement floor outside the Dome control centre, often with fatal results.
Here’s a bit closer look at the various cell blocks overseen by, and accessed from, the Dome.
Visibility from inside the control centre was problematical, as can be seen in this next image.
This next photo is looking down one of the cell blocks from the first floor level inside the Dome.
Also visible from within the guard’s cage in the Dome, were the various mail boxes for inmates and guards, all under lock and key, of course.
The bulletin board adjacent to the mail boxes was largely empty of postings. A note said Do Not Post to this board. This request was respected since no notes were attached, but was also ignored, as many persons added penned and markered words.
I don’t know if the following was a mark made by an inmate securing his place in history, or a guard lamenting his time inside the Dome.
One of the mailboxes available to the inmates is shown in this next image. If I understand correctly, this mailbox was added subsequent to the major riot inside Kingston Pen of 1971.
And speaking of the riots inside Kingston Pen, this next page gives us photos and information about that.
