Morrin Centre

The Morrin Centre in Quebec City asks how a jail people once packed the street to watch became a place where locals now relax with a novel. It covers the building's decades as Quebec City's common gaol, from 1812 to 1867, when hangings drew crowds to the balcony above the front door and prisoners were crammed five and six to a cell with no running water until the 1850s. You'll hear how poorly the gaol was secured, with prisoners bribing guards or simply walking out while the warden's reports piled up unread. Climb the staircase inside and picture the leather armchairs of the reading room above the cells that remain below.