An Interview with Dr Clare Smith
Regular readers of the blog will know that museums and archives are some of my favourite places to visit, and curators and archivists are some of my favourite people to talk to. Therefore, I’m absolutely delighted to be welcoming Dr Clare Smith back to the blog this month. We chatted way back in May 2020 for my Coffee with a Curator segment, that you can read here. This month, we discuss the special exhibition: 150 years of the crime museum and more!
1) Could you tell us a little about the Metropolitan Police Museum and your role within it?
The Police Museum is open to the public and through collections and archive tells the story of the Metropolitan Police since 1829. Our collection includes uniform, medals, equipment, vehicles, forensic equipment, photographs, documents and much more.
We have a research room and a gallery which has changing exhibitions.
I am the Police Museum Curator, so my role is to share the collection with our visitors via exhibitions, tours and talks. Along with the museum team I care for the collection and develop it via donations and collecting from around the Met.
One of my Met. colleagues told me I have the best job in the Met. and I think that is true!
2) Could you tell us about the museum’s current Special Exhibition: 150 Years of The Crime Museum?
2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the Crime Museum. We wanted to mark the occasion with an exhibition that would tell people the story of the museum. As the Crime Museum is closed to the public, we wanted to share its history with the public and also give them a chance to see objects that are not normally on display.
The Crime Museum is a closed training collection, and objects are collected as they can teach officers and staff about how crime is committed and investigated. We are thrilled we can share aspects of the collection with our visitors.
All the objects on display have been ethically selected to respect the memory of victims of crime and show how complex and challenging policing London is.
3) What is the most unusual / intriguing exhibit in 150 Years of The Crime Museum?
I think unusual and intriguing sum up the whole exhibition! I think people will be surprised to see a bath on display in the gallery. It was evidence in the trial of George Joseph Smith, The Brides in the Bath killer who would marry women, take out life insurance, then drown them in the bath.
We also have the last remaining piece of Rillington Place, the site where John Christie murdered women. The washhouse door came into the collection recently and this exhibition is the first time it has been on display.
There are also fake diamonds, fake money, a crossbow used by the Krays and even a lock of hair from the Tichborne Claimant.
4) Beyond the exhibition, visitors can also conduct research in the Metropolitan Police Museum’s archives. How should visitors go about booking this? Which records can they request?
Bookings to use our archives can be made via email to policemuseum@met.police.uk
We do book up quickly so please do get in touch if you have a deadline looming!
We have records relating to the history of the Met. including training manuals, account books, Attestation Ledgers, Divisional Ledgers, Police Orders and much more. I have to admit being very fond of Police Orders. These are the recordings of the day-to-day business of the Met. and we have them from 1857. They record people joining, transfers, commendations, policing major events from royal visits to the policing of the Oxford/Cambridge Boat race.
They are wonderful social history documents but also wonderful on the detail of the Met. One entry from 1890 records how often a police horse should be given a drink of water while on patrol.
5) What is the most frequent request the Metropolitan Police Museum receives from researchers?
We have a lot of requests around family history. If someone’s relative served in the Met. they are keen to know more about their career. In the past few years, we have also had an increase in people who want to know about their criminal ancestors. I had a woman who was very excited to find out why her Granny had been arrested! In terms of crimes the most enquiries we receive are about the Jack the Ripper investigation. I have heard a lot of theories about who Jack was!
I’d like to thank Dr Smith for talking to me today, I found the chat as fascinating as always. Tickets to the Special Exhibition: 150 Years of the Crime Museum are released on a periodic basis, but the exhibition is running until April 2026. I’ll definitely be getting some tickets!
~ T.G. Campbell, October 2025