Established | May 2021 |
---|---|
Location | Covent Garden London, WC2E 7AW |
Coordinates | 51°30′49″N00°07′18″W / 51.51361°N 0.12167°W Coordinates: 51°30′49″N00°07′18″W / 51.51361°N 0.12167°W |
Type | Police museum |
Public transit access | |
Website | Official website |
The Bow Street Police Museum, opened in 2021, is based in the former police station in Covent Garden, London. Bow Street has a unique place in the history of policing in London, with the museum presenting the story of policing and criminal justice in the area from the eighteenth century until 1992, when the police station closed.
The current museum of this name is not to be confused with the Metropolitan Police's own small public display of historic artefacts which occupied four galleries and five other rooms on the third floor of Bow Street Police Station from 1949 until the 1980s, then in West Brompton and now Sidcup - a cutlass, rattle and other objects from that collection are on loan to the Bow Street Police Museum. [1]
The first court in Bow Street was established in 1740, and in 1749 the magistrate recruited several constables. This group became the first effective police force in London, soon known as the Bow Street Runners. [2] Soon after the Metropolitan Police was established in 1829, a station house was sited in Bow Street, with the current building completed in 1881 housing both the police station and a Magistrates' Court. [3] The police station closed in 1992 and the court in 2006, when the building was sold to developers. [4] Planning permission was obtained to convert the building, which is grade II listed, into a hotel and police museum, [5] [6] both of which opened in May 2021. [7]
The museum operates as an independent charity, with initial funding provided by the Sydell Group that own the building, which also houses a hotel. [8] The museum plans to host regular events, and discussions on issues related to modern policing and social justice. [8]
The museum galleries are situated in the cells and offices of the former Bow Street Police Station. It presents the history of policing in the area from the mid-eighteenth century to the closure of the police station in 1992. This includes the experiences of police officers, and of prisoners detained there pending appearance in the neighbouring Magistrates' Court. Exhibits include an original court dock, equipment used by the Bow Street Runners, and personal effects of former officers, including beat books and truncheons. Visitors can enter a large cell called 'the tank', once used to detain overnight those arrested for drunken behaviour in Covent Garden. [8] [9] [10]
Famous prisoners depicted include Oscar Wilde, Dr Crippen and the Kray twins, and those facing extradition proceedings, such as Augusto Pinochet and James Earl Ray. [11] Some of these figures are shown in reproductions of courtroom sketches by William Hartley from the collections of the Metropolitan Police's Crime Museum. [12]
Shortly before the museum opened in May 2021, its curator Jen Kavanagh said "We hope that when visitors walk through the doors of the museum, they will have a real sense of the history of Bow Street and the people who have passed through those doors before them. We have worked especially closely with officers who served at Bow Street and, as a result, the museum is rich with recollections of life at a unique place in a special part of town." [10]
The building housing the museum is opposite the front of the Royal Opera House, and is within walking distance from both Covent Garden Underground station and Charing Cross railway station.
London buses | Aldwych 11, 15, 26, 76, 172 Aldwych 243, 341 |
London Underground & overground rail services | Covent Garden Charing Cross (10 min walk) |
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in 1749 by magistrate Henry Fielding, who was also well known as an author. Bow Street Runners was the public's nickname for the officers, although the officers did not use the term themselves, considering it derogatory. The group was disbanded in 1839 and its personnel merged with the Metropolitan Police. The Metropolitan Police Detective Agency traces their origin back to them.
Aldwych is a street and the name of the area immediately surrounding it in central London, England, within the City of Westminster. The 450 metres (1,480 ft) street starts 600 metres (2,000 ft) east-northeast of Charing Cross, the conventional map centre-point of the city.
Bow Street is a thoroughfare in Covent Garden, Westminster, London. It connects Long Acre, Russell Street and Wellington Street, and is part of a route from St Giles to Waterloo Bridge.
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R v Bow St Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate [2000] 1 AC 61, 119 and 147 is a set of three UK constitutional law judgments by the House of Lords that examined whether former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was entitled to claim state immunity from torture allegations made by a Spanish court and therefore avoid extradition to Spain. They have proven to be of landmark significance in international criminal law and human rights law.
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John Dixon Butler was a British architect and the Surveyor to London's Metropolitan Police from 1895 until his death. He completed the designs and alterations to around 200 police buildings during his career, including ten courts; as of 2022, about 58 of his buildings survive. Historic England describes him as "one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects" and have included around 25 of his buildings on the National Historic List of England and Wales.
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