Private Tour of Bow Street Police Museum of Crime & Justice - 10th May 2025

It had to take something truly special to match the wonders of the Churchill War Rooms and Dr Johnson's House of our previous recent museum excursions - and the Bow Street Police Museum of Crime & Justice did just that - living up to the fame of this historic location. 

The private tour was outstanding, and also involved the opportunity to see the old court room, with the original coat of arms (now an almost immersive experience held in the adjoining hotel), as well as handling historic objects from the police world and inspecting the cells. The history was fascinating, both of the creation of the police force (the Bow Street Runners), and the famous people and criminals held overnight at the cells and tried at the court, including the disgraced former dictator Pinochet (before extradition) and of course the many suffragettes caught up in the struggle for votes for women at the turn of the 20th century. 

It was great to see the group ask and answer so many questions with impressive skill and wider knowledge.

We then turned to our debate element of the session which took place in the famous 'tank' room. 

Splitting into two teams we focussed on two motions:

1. 'This House believes that the Bow Street cells were not harsh enough on those that spent time there' 

& inspired by the suffragette theme, 

2. 'This House would change the law to allow prisoners the right to vote'.

Voting remained evenly split at both tellings in each debate, with some excellent POIs too and some compelling rebuttal. 

Well done all on another excellent Socratic excursion!