Birmingham's Last Public Hanging Near this site, at what was then the junction of Great Charles Street, Snow Hill and Bath Street, Philip Matsell, aged 30 was hanged at 1:25pm on Friday 22nd August 1806 in front of a crowd estimatd at 40,000. He had been convicted of the murder of Robert Twyford, a "peace officer" ( a parish constable or watchman - the percursor of the later Police Officer) on that very spot and was burried in St Phillip's Churchyard. It was over 60 years later, in May 1868, that the last public execution in Britain took place near Ludgate Hill in London