Tyburn, the name borrowed for the Middlesex gallows from a nearby tributary of the river Thames, was the principal place of execution in London from 1388 until 1783 (near the modern Marble Arch). In the hope that witnessing an execution might prove deterrent, hanging days were public holidays, hence enormous, unruly crowds (the more affluent on grandstand seating) awaited the carts from Newgate gaol on the condemned prisoners' oft-perceived day of glory. After the spectacle, the bodies were buried nearby or removed for dissection. The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw were exhumed and hanged at Tyburn in January 1661.

A. S. Hargreaves

Tyburn a place in London, near Marble Arch, where public hangings were held c.1300–1783. It is named after a tributary of the Thames, which flows in an underground culvert nearby.