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The Tyburn Tree
The site of the Tyburn Tree, public hanging place for thousands.
Every Monday for the last 200 years or so of its existence, condemned men and women travelled the route from Newgate to Tyburn, place of public execution. Set at the junction of what is now Edgware Road, Park Lane and Oxford Street1, the gallows overlooked Hyde Park. Estimates of the number of people who died here vary between 40,000 and 60,000. They were mostly commoners.The first execution at Tyburn took place in 1196, the last in 1783. The first hangings were carried out from tree branches on the bank of the Tyburn River (see below), but in 1220 a pair of gallows were built on the site. The Triple Tree (the name given to the gallows) was built in 1571, and removed in 1759 because it was obstructing the highway. A mobile gallows was used until public executions ceased there.