We are sad to announce that Leonard "Nipper" Read QPM died this morning aged 95. A Met legend, he is best known for his part in bringing the Kray Twins to justice and his autobiographies hold places of honour in our collections.
#RIP
#Nipper
#NipperRead
#coronavirusuk
#legend
Joining less than a year apart, the Met's first male and female Black officers were both members of the
#WindrushGeneration
. Today and every
#WindrushDay
we commit to better representing Black officers' stories in our collections.
#WindrushDay2020
@HodgeTheCat
Not ours exactly, but the station cat at Wellington Arch in the 1950s was called Snooks, for reasons lost in the mists of time. Clear who was really in charge ... 😉😺
Some
#accessories
and equipment have proved more useful and long-lasting than others. This handbag was designed in 1986 to hold the new women's truncheon, but the former (often with some heavy contents added) was usually more useful for self-defence than the latter ...
#Museum30
One thing we have learnt from our archives is that manure from police horses used to be collected and then either reused on police station gardens or sold to the public to pay for their keep!
#Archive30
#ArchiveSustainability
#GoodForTheRoses
#BornOnThisDay
in Bourne, Lincolnshire in 1885, Lilian Wyles became one of the Met's first women sergeants in February 1919 & served for thirty years, paving the way for women in CID through her statement-taking in cases involving women & children.
#OnThisDay
#HappyBirthday
#OTD
For
#fashion
, Norman Hartnell's colour sketch for the new women's uniform of 1968. A press release praised "its combination of elegance and comfort with utility", whilst a newsreel called it "the new 'with-it' look of Scotland Yard"
#Archive30
#MetWomen100
#100yearsstrong
So difficult to choose a
#FavouriteItem
! It changes all the time.
Current favourite is this image of a Metropolitan Police Driving School lesson in the 1930s.
#Archive30
As you might imagine, we have quite a sizeable uniform collection. This hi vis jacket is creating a debate among our team - is it
#yellow
or green?
#Museum30
Not only for
#WorldBeardDay
, but also an excellent example of the ridged 'coxcomb' helmet, worn by the Met 1863-1870 and still sported by
@CityPoliceCops
...
Women officers first gained the power of arrest in 1923, so the earliest attestation signatures we have of women officers date to April that year. A 2020 donation enabled us to put an image to the first signature on the page, Violet Butcher.
#Archive30
#ArchivePeople
#Centenary
This set of tiny test tubes, bottles and other items was a medical examiner's kit, a kind of early precursor to the more recent 'murder bag' developed in the 1920s by forensic pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury.
#LBLMAGiantAndTiny
A new month, a new theme - here is a late 1940s to 1950s case full of forensics tools, with later additions and updates. More commonly known as the 'murder bag', it was instituted by
@ukhomeoffice
pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury in 1924.
#CLHCGTools
#CrimeMuseumUncovered
We have quite the collection of maps, this beat map of perhaps the most famous sub-division of E (Holborn) Division being one example.
#Archive30
#ArchiveCollection
A new month, a new monthly Twitter collaboration, this time with members of the Central London Historic Collections Group (CLHCG). February's theme is
#CLHCGColourful
and we promise we'll find some items from our collections that *aren't* blue ...
#BornOnThisDay
in Lowestoft 120 years ago, Harry Daley is the first known openly-gay Met PC. Working at
@MPSHammersmith
&
@MPSMayfair
+ for a time lover to E M Forster, he was drawn into London's literary circles after meeting J. R. Ackerley at
@LyricHammer
in the 1920s.
#LGBTQIA
Alice Bertha Clayden (right) was
#BornOnThisDay
in Greenford 140 years ago. Daughter, sister (x3!) & wife to Met officers, she survived the 'Geddes Axe', led the Met's women 1922-30 as our first Woman Inspector with power of arrest and retired in 1941.
#OnThisDay
(CC
@EalingLibs
)
We're the museum, reference library, research room, exhibition space *and* archive of the Metropolitan Police Service, covering both crime-solving and the lives of its officers and staff since 1829.
#PoliceOrders
#YourArchive
#Archive30
#multitasking
In spring 2022 we hope to re-open at Marlowe House, less than 200 yards from Sidcup train station, not just with a new reading room for our archives, photographs and books (our objects are staying put in Woolwich), but also a display space.
#ExploreYourArchives
#NewYear2022
As we sign-off from
#MuseXmas
, an early happy Christmas to all our readers - may your days be merry and bright, and may all your TARDIS-es be white ...
#DoctorWho
#MuseumsTogether
In 1839 the 41-year-old River Police was merged into the Met, bringing with it its headquarters in Wapping, visited by Dickens and etched by Whistler (2 -
@V_and_A
not us, alas!). Its current 1872 building (3) still houses
@MPSonthewater
and its museum.
#LBLMAbuildings
Continuing our August theme of animals, we love this photograph from J Division. The dog is all ready for his photo opportunity whilst the horses are more interested in feeding time.
#CLHCGAnimals
Now many of our VHS tapes have been digitised, we're starting to look at ways we can bring them to a wider public. We have almost 200 passing out parade videos for 1992-2004 - could you be in one of them?
#DigitalArchives
#Archive30
Best known for establishing the Met's Fingerprint Bureau in 1901, Commissioner Edward Henry was
#BornOnThisDay
170 years ago. He also introduced telephones at divisional stations, expanded the use of typewriters at the Yard and survived an assassination attempt.
#OTD
#OnThisDay
Sgt Frank Ellis Bunn's pocket book has recently been returned to us from loan. Seconded from N (
@MPSIslington
) Division for the 1913 Epsom Derby, he describes what happened when suffragette Emily Wilding Davison stepped out in front of the king's horse.
#Museum30
#Document
Dickens' own works were clearly popular among PCs, as seen in this 1885-1933
@MPSEastBarnet
station library ledger from our collections, a rare insight into working- and lower-middle-class reading habits of the period. (1/2)
#WorldBookDay
#WorldBookDay2021
#WBD2021
The Met has policed the tidal Thames since 1839, but the
#ocean
s? Yes indeed! From 1860 to 1934 five Met units policed Woolwich Arsenal and dockyards such as
@PHDockyard
and
@DockyardChatham
, with their powers valid over a 15 mile radius by land and sea.
#Museum30
We are two
#Museum
s (one private, one public) as well as an archive and library, between us covering over 190 years of crime and policing in London and beyond from our research room in Sidcup, to which we will add an exhibition space in spring 2023.
#Museum30
#WhyMuseum30
? Because we love to engage with other collections, highlight some of our own, see what amazing objects others have and add to our ever-growing list of museums to visit!
#Museum30
The 1967 women's uniform by royal
#fashion
designer Norman Hartnell & milliner Simone Mirman brought headlines like "Police Girls' New Look". Wearers, however, reported the hat's propensity to fall off at the start of foot chases...
#Archive30
#ExploreYourArchive
#fashionhistory
#Feet
on the beat has been core to the Met's purpose ever since the first officers were sworn in at the Foundling Hospital in September 1829 - here is one of our beat maps or
#plans
. Confusingly, a Section was a sub-division of a Sub-Division.
#MuseumsUnlocked
#ExploreYourArchive
Our new Sidcup site has been open for a year, hosting a
#museum
, library, archive and research room, not to mention
@MPHVC
, added to our remit last spring. Come visit us () !