Comments on: The Hackney Whipping Post

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:34:18 +0000

I say bring um back and use them on politicians,every single time they lie or brake a campaign promise!!!!

By: Conor

Conor — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 14:14:05 +0000

As sarah says, the wheels don’t look functional now but perhaps would have been back in time. Presumably the condemned would be secured in to the post within the church grounds and wheeled a short distance to be punished. The judge would decide on the specifics of the punishment ie no of lashes, type of whip….and location. Many towns had their own whipping post, of course…. where the punishment would be carried out on designated days of the week

By: Ron Bird

Ron Bird — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 10:58:40 +0000

I remember those stocks laying in St Johns church yard go many years when I lived in Hackney, shame they have been left to rot, it’s our history, I think either the local council or St Johns church should just get on & restore them, does it really matter who owns them after all these years?

By: David

David — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:24:49 +0000

No shortage of yobs nowadays who would benefit from a public flogging…just saying.

By: Sean Gubbins

Sean Gubbins — Tue, 29 May 2018 16:59:27 +0000

The situation regarding this important Hackney artefact has moved on slightly. With the help of Hackney Council, the stocks have now been professionally moved to be stored at a Hackney Parks depot. There, safe and protected from the weather, they are drying out, ready to be restored. A conservator’s report had been prepared on what needs to be done to conserve and restore them to a state where they can be put back on public display. But before funding can be applied for to restore them, or commission work on them, it needs to be decided who owns them: the church or the borough.

There is not enough room to house the structure in Hackney Museum, though the model Groundwork commissioned (pictured above) has been deposited with the Museum and is kept there in the storeroom.

If you would would like to register your interest in the project to restore Hackney’s Whipping Post (or stocks), please get in touch with Sean Gubbins at sean@walkhackney.co.uk.

By: Olivia Kilmartin

Olivia Kilmartin — Fri, 25 May 2018 15:44:23 +0000

The obvious place for it would be the Hackney Museum next to the town hall and the library. It’s a lovely museum – small and friendly.

By: Ron Bunting

Ron Bunting — Fri, 25 May 2018 11:59:51 +0000

In todays political climate, Such things as this whipping post are not considered to be politically correct. In this case ,If I were closer I would call in and take it and put it away to at least stop the ancient timbers rotting. If the timbers are not the originals, I would say the iron work most certainly dates from the 1600’s. Surely it’s a listed artifact? On another note, it’s humorous to note that it was the Churches who commissioned them .Thankfully the Christian church has moved on from this type of Social control. At least one of my ancestors tasted the whip, a young Irishman named David Horan who was transported to new South Wales for the term of his natural life in 1835 .NSW convict records name his twice as receiving the “cat ” for insubordination .Whipping with either a whip or the cat o’nine tails was savage and thankfully no longer carried out in civilized countries.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 25 May 2018 11:27:59 +0000

And in many ghostly forms is still going on

By: Sarah Waldock

Sarah Waldock — Fri, 25 May 2018 09:59:43 +0000

there’s a Gillray cartoon of a pair of society ladies being whipped in the pillory for running gaming houses, which was doubtless only portrayed because a couple of women with titles were getting theirs the same as any drab running a bawdy house, but it is interesting that the use of it was fairly egalitarian. I’m intrigued by the wheels; they don’t look sufficiently functional and large to use to wheel the condemned to various locations to be whipped. I know that a Tudor punishment was to be ‘whip’t at the cart’s arse’, where as I understand it, the sentenced person was tied to an ordinary small cart pulled by an ass, and whipped either through the town or for a vagrant, out of the boundaries of the town starting at the market cross, and was chased onward after leaving town. I’ve read an account where a leather apron was tied over the kidneys to prevent too much damage, which was also done in military floggings at sea [and I presume in the army too; the idea was to punish not deprive the king of sailors and soldiers by killing them, a kind of rough pragmatism.]

By: Milo Bell

Milo Bell — Fri, 25 May 2018 09:53:02 +0000

An ugly reminder it may be but i hope it finds a home soon as it definitely should not be left to rot away in such a fashion. Wouldn’t the London museum want it?