six o'clock
It was approached from the street by a flight of broad stone steps , leading to a ponderous door , plated with iron , and secured on the inner side by huge bolts , and a lock , with wards of a prodigious size . A little within stood a second door , or rather wicket , lower than the first , but of equal strength , and surmounted by a row of sharp spikes . As no apprehension was entertained of an escape by this outlet , -- nothing of the kind having been attempted by the boldest felon ever incarcerated in Newgate , -- both doors were generally left open during the daytime . At six o'clock , the wicket was shut ; and at nine , the jail was altogether locked up . Not far from the entrance , on the left , was a sort of screen , or partition-wall , reaching from the floor to the ceiling , formed of thick oaken planks riveted together by iron bolts , and studded with broad-headed nails . In this screen , which masked the entrance of a dark passage communicating with the Condemned Hold , about five feet from the ground , was a hatch , protected by long spikes set six inches apart , and each of the thickness of an elephant 's tusk . The spikes almost touched the upper part of the hatch : scarcely space enough for the passage of a hand being left between their points and the beam .