BRIDEWELL, a district of London between Fleet Street and the Thames, so called from the well of St. Bride or St. Bridget close by. From William the Conqueror's time, a castle or Norman tower, long the occasional residence of the kings of England, stood there by the Fleet ditch. Henry VIII., Stow says, built there "a stately and beautiful house," specially for the housing of the emperor Charles V. and his suite in 1525. In 1553 Edward VI. made it over to the city as a penitentiary, a house of correction for vagabonds and loose women. Owing to this circumstance, other institutions of this character were frequently known as bridewells in England and sometimes also in the United States.