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In unexpected cultural news, it has been reported that notorious Bristolian street artist Banksy has pledged £10 million towards buying a prison in Berkshire. Reading Prison – formerly Reading Gaol – is famous as the place where poet, playwright and all-round Victorian societal provocateur Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in 1895 after his prosecution for gross indecency following a scandalous affair with young aristocrat Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas.
The huge prison, which was decommissioned back in 2013, had been slated to be turned into flats by a property developer, but they then pulled out. It hit the headlines earlier this year after Banksy painted a mural on its exterior wall of a prisoner (possibly Wilde himself, it’s quite hard to tell) escaping using the classic knotted-bedsheets method. The artist has offered to sell the stencil he used to create the piece as part of his proposal to turn the building into an arts and cultural centre. Along with Reading Council’s £2.6m, Banksy contribution would pump up the offer to £12.6m.
Wilde was imprisoned in the gaol under his age’s draconian ‘decency’ laws, which criminalised homosexuality, among other things. He wrote his famous poem ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ while incarcerated there. Although he was released in 1897, the experience is widely considered to have broken his health and destroyed his career, and Wilde died in Paris just three years later, a social outcast. There has been widespread support for the plans to turn the venue into an arts hub from artists and actors including Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Natalie Dormer.
Here’s hoping something good finally comes out of Wilde’s tragic imprisonment.
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