Year 10 Trip to City of London Police Museum
Mrs E. Stamp, Joint Subject Leader: History, writes;
On Wednesday 20th June 52 Year 10s ventured into London’s Square Mile to visit The City of London Police Museum to enhance their understanding of our Crime and Punishment course. Whilst we were there we were also able to visit the Museum of London (a few minutes walk away) to gain a clearer insight into the huge social divide in Victorian London which is also relevant to their course.
The City of London Police Museum did interactive workshops with our two groups which covered the ineffective use of watchmen in London and the development of the police force as well as a tour of the museum. There were some good face recognition quizzes and discussions on cyber crime. I was extremely proud of our students who interacted intelligently and showed strong subject knowledge.
The museum included a wide range of events and memorabilia. It included a Victorian police uniform with a reinforced neck collar (due to garrotting being such a fashionable crime); the last hours of Jack the Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes; bomb damage during the Blitz; being at the forefront of technology to counter terrorism and the current work against economic crime and cybercrime.
The museum was situated in the City of London Corporation’s Guildhall Library, so some students also had the opportunity to see the remains of Londinium’s Roman Amphitheatre which was discovered there six meters below ground by accident in the 1980s.
The Museum of London is full of fascinating artefacts and students had the opportunity to sit in a debtor’s prison cell, stroll through Vauxhall’s pleasure gardens and study Booth’s Poverty Map before relaxing in the café with a freshly baked cookie and a drink.
“We saw how the City of London police had changed since 1829. We learnt how methods of policing had changed and how different crimes are now.” Alex Wright 10H
“The best part to the day was finding out that one man made millions from selling an empty box for £15,000 and persuading people that it was a bomb detector.” Laura Nathan 10O
