Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Whitecross Street prison, London.

1849		London Dly News 15 Jan. 4/3: He said he knew Burdon’s Hotel, which was a place some people called Whitecross street Prison.
1854		Morn. Chron. (London) 13 Jan. 8/1: Since the insolvent had been in prison he had offered to give bills to his creditors, and, being in Whitecross-street Prison, directed the answers to be sent to him at ‘Burdon’s Hotel, Cripplegate’.
1861		D. Cook Paul Foster’s Daughter I 35: Did you never hear of Burdon’s Hotel, Cripplegate? [...] be respectable, and Burdon’s Hotel is not for you to sojourn at.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1902		Globe (London) 25 Nov. 1/5: The old debtors’ prison in Whitecross-street was long called Burdon’s Hotel from the name of a Mr. Burdon, sometime its governor.