Female Husbands Facing The Law
Catherine de Guise looks at the lives of two female husbands in eighteenth century England. These were people who were assigned female at birth who lived as men and married women.
The suffragettes at Bow Street: What was it like?
Catherine de Guise looks at the suffragettes’ time at Bow Street — from their arrest, to their trial and departure for prison. Bow Street for them was a place of fear and anxiety but also one of unity, pride and passion for the cause.
Bow Street and Boxing
Boxing has always divided opinion on whether it is a demonstration of physical discipline or simple brutal violence and the legality of some contests put on for entertainment purposes was questionable.
Bloomers On Bow Street: Dress Reformers Arrested in Victorian London
Summer Anne Lee, Fashion Historian and Research Volunteer at Bow Street Police Museum, explains how women wearing the ‘Bloomer Costume’ in Victorian London attracted police attention.
Murder at the Adelphi
Discover more about the untimely end of one of the stars of the West End, how Bow Street officers responded, and the lasting legacy of a theatrical ghost.
Criminals in Crinolines: Fashion in London, 1800-1860s
Summer Anne Lee, Fashion Historian and Research Volunteer at Bow Street Police Museum, explains how the Victorian fashion trend for large crinolines intersected with London crime.
Shattering Suffrage
Our research volunteer Jack shares his work on Women’s Suffrage, and specifically the WSPU’s window smashing campaign of 1912.
Eighteenth-Century Fashion Police in Covent Garden
Summer Anne Lee, Fashion Historian and Research Volunteer at Bow Street Police Museum, breaks down fashion and fashion-related crimes in 18th-century London.
Looking for the Bow Street Runners in literature
Many visitors to the Museum have heard of the Bow Street Runners, the popular name of the police force set up by Henry Fielding in 1749. This is usually because the name has appeared in a book or film. But when one delves more deeply, it is surprisingly difficult to find the Runners (properly known as Principal Officers) in major works of fiction, and even when they do appear they tend to be insignificant.
An Incorrigible Rogue
The cause and effect of poverty and crime is much debated even today, and treating vagrancy and begging as criminal acts only increases the problem. Many Londoners faced this vicious cycle and from our census research we have a brief biography of one such person.