Was Jeremiah Henry Collins a criminal?

[Ruskie]

You say Jeremiah married in Southwark and then returned to St Pancras - how long did he stay in Southwark. It's only just over the river so not too far away - perhaps he had employment there.

I think the fact that he married "near" a prison is irrelevant. There were prisons, workhouses, asylums, etc all around Greater London.

Similar with the prisoner's housing in St Pancras. It doesn't follow that he was an inmate ....

[Ruskie]

It just seems strange why to marry in Southwark, close to a prison and return.

In case it steers your thinking at all, the Marshalsea was essentially a debtors' prison, not a criminal prison.

Ah, I thought it sounded familiar - is that the prison associated with Dickens?

[Ruskie]

Looking at an old map of the area, Ossulston Street looks to be a decent area (if I have the right street and it's the one that runs into Euston Road?). Most houses have a yard/garden, though one side of the street does contain railway goods sheds. I can't see any housing for criminals or institutions of any sort in the near vicinity.

Note though that the map I am looking at is later than when your family were living there. I will look for an earlier map to compare.

Added. I have found an earlier map, but not much detail, but at this time Ossulston Street appears to have been housing on both sides as it is pre St Pancras Station. I will continue looking ....

...if you can recall the name of the criminal's housing or whereabouts it was, that might be very useful in trying to locate it.

[Ruskie]

After looking at several maps from the 1830s and 40s I can't see any obvious prison related buildings marked on any of them in the area around Kings Cross. (but there was a small pox hospital and a fever hospital where Kings Cross Station is 

Approximately the southern half of Ossulston Street was actually called Wilsted Street. It is difficult to say what kind of buildings would have been along Ossulston St, but there are several named "Buildings" in this and neighbouring streets, perhaps indicating terraced housing or buildings of two or three storeys.