In 1749 local officers were set up by a self appointed magistrate to police the area around Covent Garden and the wider London area. Based in Bow Street, they became known as the ‘Bow Street Runners‘.
During a private visit to the Bow Street Museum by members of the Company, we learnt that over the next 266 years some of the country’s most significant developments in criminal justice took place there, from their inception to modern extradition cases such as those brought against Chilean general and politician Jose Ramon Pinochet. The cells used to house offenders were viewed as they had been retained within this original building.
The Turners Charity contributed to the refurbishment of the magistrates dock at this original building – the dock has seen many famous people stand in it including Oscar Wilde, the suffragette’s Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst and Mrs Drummond as well as the Kray twins and now the Master Turner, pictured here standing in the dock with a truncheon provided to female officers which was a third of the size issued to male officers!
In 1992 after 111 years, the facilities at Bow Street Police Station were no longer fit for purpose. Officers and operations are transferred to the nearby Charing Cross Police Station, and on 5 October the station doors closed for the last time.
The court remained open beyond the closure of the police station. By the time it eventually closed, a court had operated on Bow Street for 266 years.
