Prison on a Roundabout

Monday, 29th September 2008 by

Beaufort West is a town in South Africa, which must be the only town in the world to claim that it has a prison in the middle of a roundabout.

The town lies at the intersection of the N1 and N12 highways (two of South Africa's busiest roads), and it's the N1 that splits around the buildings. The prison was established in 1873, so presumably the road was divided to avoid the building, rather than this being some sort of primitive escape-deterrent!

Of all the people who drive around this roundabout every day, I wonder how many of them even realise they're circling a prison?

Thanks to Fraser (again), via magnumphotos.com (which has some more information on the troubled town as well as an excellent, if not entirely SFW photo gallery).