Crime Museum
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The Crime Museum is a collection of
criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...
kept at
New Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England. Known as the Black Museum until the early 21st century, the museum came into existence at Scotland Yard sometime in 1874, arising out of the collection of prisoners' property gathered as a result of the
Forfeiture Act 1870 The Forfeiture Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 23) or the Abolition of Forfeiture Act 1870 or the Felony Act 1870 is a British act of Parliament that abolished the automatic forfeiture of goods and land as a punishment for treason and felony. It d ...
and intended as an aid to the police in their study of crime and criminals. Initially unofficial, it had become an official if private museum by 1875, with a police inspector and a police constable assigned to official duty there. Not open to the public, it was used as a teaching collection for police recruits and was only ever accessible by those involved in legal matters, royals and other VIPs. Now sited in the basement of the
Curtis Green Building New Scotland Yard, formerly known as the Curtis Green Building and before that, Whitehall Police Station, is a building in Westminster in Central London. Since November 2016, it has been the Scotland Yard headquarters of the Metropolitan Police ...
(the present
New Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
), the museum remains closed to the public but can be visited by officers of the Metropolitan Police and any of the country's police forces by prior appointment.


History


Origins

In his 1993 book ''The Black Museum: New Scotland Yard'', the museum's then-curator Bill Waddell asserted that its origins lay in an 1869 Act giving the police authority to either destroy items used in the commission of a crime or retain them for instructional purposes, when previous to that Act they had been retained by the police until reclaimed by their owners. No such Act was passed in 1869 and this misapprehension seems to originate in a misdated mention of the
Forfeiture Act 1870 The Forfeiture Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 23) or the Abolition of Forfeiture Act 1870 or the Felony Act 1870 is a British act of Parliament that abolished the automatic forfeiture of goods and land as a punishment for treason and felony. It d ...
in an 1877 newspaper report on the museum: The Black Museum was conceived in 1874 by Percy George Neame, a serving
inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...
who at that time had collected together a number of items, with the intention of giving police officers practical instruction on how to detect and prevent crime. The first exhibits for display were clothing and items belonging to Jane Clouson, 17, murdered in Eltham. By the latter part of 1874, official authority was given for a crime museum to be opened. Neame, with the help of a P.C. Randall, gathered together sufficient material of both old and new cases—initially pertaining to exhibits found in the possession of burglars and thieves—to enable a museum to be subsequently opened. There was no official opening and the actual date in 1875 when the Black Museum opened is not known, but the permanent appointment of Neame and Randall to duty in the Prisoners Property Store on 12 April suggests that it may have come into being in the latter part of that year.


1876-1902

The Museum's first two years saw a steady increase in visitors, particularly by CID officers being instructed in the museum as part of their training, keeping it in constant use. However, no record of visitors was kept until 6 October 1877, when a group of dignitaries were shown round the collection by Commissioner Sir Edmund Henderson, KCB and Assistant Commissioners Lt. Col. Labalmondiere and Capt. Harris. They were the first entries in a visitors' book which ran until 1894 and—though not all visitors were asked to sign it—it contains many notable figures from the period. One reporter from ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'' newspaper was refused admittance by Inspector Neame and on 8 April 1877 that journalist coined the name 'Black Museum' for the collection. In 1890 the museum moved with the Metropolitan Police Office to new premises at the other end of Whitehall, on the newly constructed Thames Embankment. The building, constructed by Norman Shaw RA, and made of granite quarried by convicts on Dartmoor, was called
New Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
. A set of rooms in the basement housed the museum and, although there was no Curator as such, PC Randall was responsible for keeping the place tidy, adding to exhibits, vetting applications for visits and arranging dates for them. Inspector Percy Neame retired on 31 December 1901. In June 1902 he committed suicide "by blowing his brains out" when Chief Inspector Arthur Fair and another officer were at his front door, calling in respect of a "few things in his accounts which they could not understand with reference to money seized at gaming houses".


1903-present

The museum was closed during both world wars and in 1967, with the move of New Scotland Yard to new premises in Victoria Street, S.W.1, the museum was housed in rooms on the second floor, which underwent several renovations. During the refurbishment and extension of the Curtis Green Building and New Scotland Yard's move into it, a major exhibition of artefacts from the museum, The Crime Museum Uncovered, was held at the
Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...
from 9 October 2015 to 10 April 2016. Following the exhibition the museum reopened in 2018 in a "dark and dramatic" room in the basement of the Building designed by
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (also known as AHMM) is the fourth-largest architecture practice in the United Kingdom with offices based in London and Bristol, as well as international studios in Madrid, Sydney and Oklahoma City. Allford Hall Mona ...
in collaboration with engineering consultancy Arup.


Collections

The museum displays more than 500 exhibits, each at a constant temperature of . These include historic collections and more recent artefacts, including a substantial collection of melee weapons (some overt, some concealed, all of which have been used in murders or serious assaults in London), shotguns disguised as umbrellas and numerous walking-stick swords. The museum also contains a selection of hangman's
nooses A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot tightens under load and can be loosened without untying the knot. The knot can be used to secure a rope to a post, pole, or animal but only where the end is in a position that the loop can ...
, including that used to perform the UK's last-ever execution, and
death mask A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead or be used for creation of portraits. The m ...
s made for criminals executed at
Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the pr ...
and acquired in 1902 on the prison's closure. There are also displays from famous cases which include Charlie Peace's belongings and letters allegedly written by
Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...
, though the infamous
From Hell letter The "From Hell" letter (also known as the "Lusk letter") was a letter sent with half of a preserved human kidney to George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, in October 1888. The author of this letter claimed to be the uni ...
is not part of the collection. The more recent exhibits on display include the ricin-filled pellet that killed Bulgarian dissident
Georgi Markov Georgi Ivanov Markov ( ; 1 March 1929 – 11 September 1978) was a Bulgarian dissident writer. He originally worked as a novelist, screenwriter and playwright in his native country, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, until his defection in 196 ...
in 1978, a model of the possible umbrella that fired the pellet, the fake De Beers diamond from the Millennium Dome heist and
Dennis Nilsen Dennis Andrew Nilsen (23 November 1945 – 12 May 2018) was a Scottish serial killer and Necrophilia, necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983. Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two ...
's actual stove and bathtub. Objects not currently on display include items that once belonged to Charles Black, the most prolific counterfeiter in the Western Hemisphere, including a set of printing plates, a remarkable series of forged banknotes, and a cunningly hollowed-out kitchen door once used to conceal them.


Cases on display (A–Z)

*
Death of Keith Blakelock Keith Henry Blakelock King's Gallantry Medal, QGM, a London Metropolitan Police constable, was murdered on 6 October 1985 during the Broadwater Farm riot in Tottenham, north London. The riot broke out after Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failur ...
in the
Broadwater Farm Broadwater Farm, often referred to simply as "The Farm", is an area in Tottenham, North London, straddling the River Moselle (London), River Moselle. The eastern half of the area is dominated by the Broadwater Farm Housing estate, Estate ("BWFE") ...
housing estate in 1985 (his uniform is displayed) *The trunk from the Charing Cross Trunk Murder *
John Reginald Halliday Christie John Reginald Halliday Christie (8 April 189915 July 1953) was an English serial killer and serial rapist active during the 1940s and early 1950s. He murdered at least eight people—including his wife Ethel—by strangling them inside his flat ...
, a notorious English serial killer active in the 1940s and early 1950s.''The Black Museum'' , p. 171. *Three guns from the 1944 cleft chin murder case *the poisons kit of
Thomas Neill Cream Thomas Neill Cream (27 May 1850 – 15 November 1892), also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, was a Scottish-Canadian medical doctor and serial killer who poisoned his victims with strychnine. Cream murdered up to ten people in three countri ...
, also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, a Scottish-born serial killer *the revolver used by
Ruth Ellis Ruth Ellis (; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a Welsh-born nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely. In her teens, ...
to murder her lover, David Blakely, along with the noose used to execute her *the eponymous pieces of evidence from the February 1918 "Badge and Button Murder", also known as the Eltham Common murder *
John George Haigh John George Haigh ( ; 24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer convicted for the murder of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. Haigh battered to death or shot his ...
, an English serial killer, active between 1944 and 1949 *A cast of the hole drilled into the vault wall during the
Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary In April 2015, an underground safe deposit facility in Hatton Garden, London, owned by Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd., was burgled. According to official sources, the total stolen had an estimated value of up to £14 million (equivalent ...
. *
Neville Heath Neville George Clevely Heath (6 June 1917 – 16 October 1946) was an English murderer who killed two young women in the summer of 1946. He was Capital punishment, executed in Pentonville Prison, London, in October 1946. Early life and career Nev ...
, an English killer who was responsible for the murders of at least two young women, and who was executed in London in 1946 *
Dennis Nilsen Dennis Andrew Nilsen (23 November 1945 – 12 May 2018) was a Scottish serial killer and Necrophilia, necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983. Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two ...
, a serial killer and necrophiliac. *weapons and other items from crimes against royalty, such as failed assassination attempts by
Edward Oxford Edward Oxford (19 April 1822 – 23 April 1900) was an English man who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria in 1840. He was the first of seven unconnected people who tried to kill her between 1840 and 1882. Born and raised in Birmingham ...
, George McMahon and
Marcus Sarjeant Marcus Simon Sarjeant (born ) is a British man who fired six blank shots near Queen Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London in 1981. Background Sarjeant, who was from Capel-le-Ferne, near Folkesto ...
and the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne *the pistol used by
Udham Singh Udham Singh (born Sher Singh; 26 December 1899 – 31 July 1940) was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 March ...
, an Indian revolutionary to kill
Michael O'Dwyer Michael Francis O'Dwyer (28 April 1864 – 13 March 1940) was an Irish colonial officer in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and later the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, British India, between 1913 and 1919. During O'Dwyer's tenure as Punjab' ...
, the former Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
. *The Stratton Brothers, the first men to be convicted in Great Britain for murder based on fingerprint evidence


Loans

Though the 2015–2016 exhibition and a 2025-2026 exhibition at the
Metropolitan Police Museum The Metropolitan Police Museum is the museum, library and archive of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), conserving and curating documents, books, objects and uniforms relating to the organisation's history. Over the course of its existence i ...
have been the only times a large number of exhibits have been displayed to the general public, individual objects have been loaned to exhibitions at other museums in 2019–2020. This included objects from Leatherslade Farm in a Great Train Robbery exhibition at the
Postal Museum A postal museum is a museum dedicated to the display of objects relating to the postal service. A subcategory of postal museums are philatelic museums, which focus on philately and postage stamps. List of postal and philatelic museums Afric ...
and a cigarette lighter with a hidden compartment from the
Krogers The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...
in a
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primar ...
exhibition at the
Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...
, whilst exhibits from the trial of
Roger Casement Roger David Casement (; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during World War I. He worked for the Britis ...
have been on loan to
Kerry County Museum Kerry County Museum () is a museum located in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. The museum is based in the Ashe Memorial Hall, formerly also known as the Urban Council Chambers in the centre of Tralee. The aim of the museum is to collect, record, pr ...
since 2016.


In other media

In 1951 British commercial radio producer
Harry Alan Towers Harry Alan Towers (19 October 1920 – 31 July 2009) was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 f ...
produced a radio series hosted by
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
called ''
The Black Museum Black Museum may refer to: * the Black Museum at New Scotland Yard, now known as the Crime Museum * Black Museum (Southwark), a museum of engineering components gathered by David Kirkaldy * ''Black Museum'' (Black Mirror), an episode of Black Mir ...
'', inspired by the catalogue of items on display. Each week, the programme featured an item from the museum and a dramatization of the story surrounding the object to the macabre delight of audiences. Often mistakenly cited as a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
production, Towers commercially syndicated the programme throughout the English-speaking world. The American radio writer
Wyllis Cooper Wyllis Oswald Cooper (January 26, 1899 – June 22, 1955) was an American writer and producer. He is best remembered for creating and writing the old time radio programs '' Lights Out'' (1934–1947) and '' Quiet, Please'' (1947–1949). ...
also wrote and directed a similar anthology for
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
that ran at the same time in the U. S. called ''
Whitehall 1212 Whitehall 1212 was the telephone number of Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs ...
'', for the
telephone number A telephone number is the address of a Telecommunications, telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a Number, sequ ...
of Scotland Yard. The program debuted on 18 November 1951, and was hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, curator of the Black Museum.Discussion of ''Whitehall 1212''
/ref> *There is a fictional Black Museum, inspired by the actual one, inside the Grand Hall of Justice in the ''
Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of the British weekly anthology Comic book, comic ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' (1977). He is the magazi ...
'' comic strip. *A fictional version of the Black Museum is often referred to in the ''
Dylan Dog ''Dylan Dog'' is an Italian horror comics series created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Sergio Bonelli Editore since 1986. The series features the eponymous character, a paranormal investigator who takes on cases involving supernatural el ...
'' comic series and, in some stories, exhibits are stolen from the museum. *In the 1944 film ''
The Lodger The Lodger may refer to: * ''The Lodger'' (novel), a 1913 horror novel about a Jack the Ripper-like serial killer by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes ** '' The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog'', a 1927 British silent film by Alfred Hitchcock *** "Th ...
'', Inspector Warwick (
George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous charac ...
) gives a tour of the museum to Kitty Langley (
Merle Oberon Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress. She began her acting career in British cinema in the early 1930s, with a breakout role in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). She ...
). *A 1958 horror film called ''
Horrors of the Black Museum ''Horrors of the Black Museum'' is a 1959 British horror film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Michael Gough, June Cunningham, Graham Curnow and Shirley Anne Field. It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Angl ...
'' references the Black Museum in a story of a crime writer (played by
Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer horror films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthur Holmwoo ...
) who commits grisly murders in order to write articles and books about them for public consumption. * The fourth series of Charlie Brooker's ''
Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology series, anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Most episodes are set in near-future dystopias containing Science fiction, sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction. The series i ...
'' has an episode called " Black Museum". * Tony Parsons wrote about the Black Museum in his books about detective Max Wolfe. * The manga series Kuro Hakubutsukan (Black Museum) takes place in the Crime Museum, during the period it was called Black Museum.


Notes


References


Cited works and further reading

* *


External links


New Scotland Yard's Black Museum tour on DVD
(archived)

(archived)

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