Category: true crime
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GUEST AT BOW STREET: Richard Jones of London Walking Tours, December 2020
Join me at the Bow Street Society’s house to chat with the very charming Mr Richard Jones of London Walking Tours. Mr Richard Jones is a holder of the Institute of Tourist Guiding’s highest accolade—the Blue Badge Tourist Guide qualification. The aforementioned institute being the official governing body for tour guides in England. In order…
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COFFEE WITH A CURATOR: Dr Claire Smith, Metropolitan Police Historic Collection, May 2020
May’s blog sees the start of a new series of interviews intended to give you an insight into the captivating work of curators around the world. For the first instalment, I was privileged to share a (virtual) coffee with Dr Clare Smith, Historic Collection Curator at the Heritage Centre dedicated to the Metropolitan Police Service…
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INTERVIEW WITH RETIRED BOW STREET POLICE STATION OFFICER, March 2020
Bow Street is one of London’s most famous thoroughfares — in addition to being the location of the Society’s fictional headquarters, of course. Its police station was as famous as its magistrates’ courts. The vast majority of police presence at the Bow Street station was removed in the second half of the twentieth century with…
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WHERE DID “COPPER” COME FROM? September, 2019
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The 190th Anniversary of the Founding of the Metropolitan Police Force The 29th September 2019 will mark the 190th anniversary of the founding of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel. It’s difficult for many to imagine a world in which there’s no police. Almost more difficult to imagine is a society so resistant to…
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REVIEW: SCOTLAND YARD The Complete Series, May 2019
Nowadays we’re accustomed to seeing (at least) 30 minutes of adverts (aka commercials) for products and other movies when we go to the cinema. In the early to mid-twentieth century though cinema goers would be treated to a “B feature” in addition to the top billed film. They may have also seen a news reel…
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JACK THE RIPPER CRIME CONFERENCE, October 2018
On Saturday 29th September I attended my first ever Jack the Ripper Crime Conference at the Arbor City Hotel in Whitechapel (where else?) in London. Like (almost) everyone on the face of the planet I’d heard about the (still) unsolved crimes of Jack the Ripper. I’d conducted some research into the early lives of some…