Facts and stories of London's most famous police establishment.

At the mention of Scotland Yard, travelers conjure up an image of the foggy streets of London, patrolled by a policeman in a checkered jacket, smoking a pipe. But Scotland Yard has a rather complicated history, full of distorted terminology and contradictions. We invite you to study the history of Scotland Yard and find out what connects writers Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll with the London police.
The London Police Service was founded on 29 September 1829 by the London Police Act, introduced into Parliament by the Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel. The new police service became the successor to the previously existing watchman service. By 1839, the "Scotland Yard bobbies" had replaced the Criminal Police Court patrols, which carried out the decisions of the City Magistrate, and the Water Police, whose officers worked to prevent crime in areas along the Thames.

The nickname of Scotland Yard police officers, “bobbies,” comes from Robert Peel’s diminutive name, Bobby. By the way, the predecessors of the police from the Magistrate and the water police also had nicknames: “blue devils” and “raw crayfish”, respectively.

Responsibility for organizing the new police unit was entrusted to Colonels Charles Rowan and Richard Main, who occupied a private house at: Whitehall, 4; from the back of the house there was an exit to the courtyard - Great Scotland Yard.

There are many versions of where the name “Scotland Yard” came from. One of them claims that in the Middle Ages this territory was in the possession of a man named Scott. From the second version it follows that the name is associated with Scotland, since it was from this street that stagecoaches departed from London to Scotland. But the truth is that Scotland Yard is so named because previously there was a medieval palace in its place, where the Scottish royal family stayed during their visits to London. In the 10th century, King Edgar of England gave the ownership of the Scottish King Kenet a plot of land near the Palace of Westminster in London, while demanding that the ruler of Scotland build a palace on that land and that all the kings of Scotland at all times visit it annually with their family, as a sign of respect to the kingdom of England from Scotland. The need for this disappeared only in 1603, after the death of Queen Elizabeth I. King James VI of Scotland, and the first king of England from the Stuart dynasty, ascended the throne. The palace has lost its original purpose. It was divided into two parts: the first was called “Great Scotland Yard”, the second - “Middle Scotland Yard”, used for government needs.

Scotland Yard officers were responsible for the security of high-ranking private citizens, public policing of the city, the security of public events, recruitment and personnel management. When Scotland Yard sent its first squad of "plainclothes officers" onto the streets in 1842, people sometimes felt uneasy being surrounded by "spies" on the streets. But the role of this service in the investigation of several important cases and the talent of many of its employees over time helped this unit gain the trust of the population.

The main requirements for candidates for service in Scotland Yard today:
The candidate can be of any nationality but must be able to remain in the UK indefinitely.
At least 18 years of age.
“Strong, Nordic character” increases the chances of serving in Scotland Yard; in any case, you will have to prove your resilience in difficult stressful situations.
Tattoos are allowed, but they should not be rude, racist, promoting violence or intimidation.

One of the men was Charles Frederick Field, who had served in the unit since its founding in 1829. He was a good friend of Charles Dickens, who occasionally accompanied the police on night duty. Field retired as chief of police detectives in 1852.

Since its inception, Scotland Yard has always occupied its special place in popular culture. Dickens wrote a short essay about Field, “On Duty with Inspector Field,” and used him as the prototype for the well-known Inspector Bucket, the hero of his novel Bleak House.
Employees often acted as characters in detective literary works, including the famous Sherlock Holmes - the hero of the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie and many other novelists.

In 1877, four of the five chiefs of detective departments were convicted of collaborating with criminals in the betting system. Trying to save the unit's tarnished reputation, Howard Vincent proposed reform of the service. Vincent was soon appointed head of the criminal investigation department and reorganized Scotland Yard by strengthening its central division. It was then that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a highly respected unit of plainclothes police officers, was born.

Howard Vincent is also known as a member of the International Olympic Committee from 1901 to 1908. He took an active part in organizing the 1904 IOC session in London. One of the initiators of the creation of the NOC of Great Britain - the British Olympic Association.

The turn of the century brought with it many important events in the history of Scotland Yard. Britain's "Bloody Sunday" occurred on November 13, 1887, when 2,000 police officers interrupted a rally in Trafalgar Square organized by the Federation of Social Democrats, resulting in the death of more than 100 people. A few years later, the police moved to a new building, which was located on Queen Victoria Embankment. This building became known as New Scotland Yard.
Also at this time, one of Scotland Yard's most famous detectives, Frederick Porter Wensley, also known as the "weasel" - a long-time detective who worked in his post for more than 40 years - began working here. Wensley was recruited in 1888 and had many notable cases in his career, including the murder of 32-year-old Frenchwoman Emiline Gerald, also known as the Blodie Belgium case.

On the morning of November 2, 1917, janitors discovered the torso of Emily Gerald and the note "Blodie Belgium." Wensley interrogated Gerald's lover, Louis Voisin, asking him to write the expression "Bloody Belgium." Voisin made the same mistake in spelling the word, which served as evidence of his guilt.

Previously, Wensley spent some time investigating the Jack the Ripper case, which attracted the attention of the entire East End of London. "Jack the Ripper" is the fictitious name of a serial killer who committed brutal crimes between 1888 and 1891. Scotland Yard officers have detained a suspect in 11 attacks on prostitutes in the largely poor Whitechapel area. Police identified the killer's signature - he offered to pay for sex, lured women and slit their throats - and struggled to track down the culprit. Lacking modern forensic technology, Scotland Yard employees, in particular Inspector Frederick Abberline, relied in their work on anthropometry, that is, they identified the criminal by certain facial features, for example, the thickness of the eyebrows or the shape of the jaw. The police received many letters from people posing as the murderer; in two of these letters the facts were stated in some detail, and the letters themselves were signed “Jack the Ripper.” However, in the absence of any further results of the investigation and murders, the Jack the Ripper case was officially closed in 1892.

A total of more than 160 people were accused of the Whitechapel murders, including Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll and artist William Richard Sickert.

In 1967, this department once again changed its location, moving to a modern 20-story building on Broadway, 10, not far from the building where the British Parliament meets. Today, Scotland Yard has approximately 30,000 officers patrolling an area of ​​620 square miles, home to 7.2 million UK citizens.

Now the former headquarters is known as the Norman Shaw (North) building. Scotland Yard's telephone number was originally 1212. Most police stations in London use 1212 as the last four digits of the telephone number.

Of course, when traveling to London, law-abiding tourists are not allowed to go to Scotland Yard and we would not recommend trying by hook or by crook to get into the holy of holies of the London police. But you can try to visit the Scotland Yard Crime Museum (8-10 Broadway, room 101) or the "Black Museum", which has been open to the general public since August 2013. For almost fifty years, the repository of terrible material evidence, weapons and death masks of criminals was accessible only to police officers. This is the oldest police museum in the world, the official opening date is 1877, but in fact the history of the museum dates back to 1869, when the police were allowed to seize the property of prisoners for training purposes. The idea of ​​​​creating a museum on its basis belongs to Inspector Neame, who, together with Officer Randall, organized the first exhibition.

The word "detective" comes from the Latin "detectio" - disclosure. It is used in three different meanings, familiar to everyone today. The first of them is the name of a popular genre in literature and cinema. In the second case, the term "detective" refers to the position of police officer in the United States and other English-speaking countries involved in the investigation of crimes. Finally, the third meaning of the word “detective” is a private investigator.

Eugene Francois Vidocq

"Only a thief can catch a thief"

(from Clive Emsley's book "Crime, Police, and Penal Policy: European Experiences 1750-1940")

How did criminal Eugene François Vidocq manage to found the criminal police?

It was his criminal past and knowledge of the criminal world that helped Vidocq.

After serving several years and escaping from prison several times, Vidocq, after another escape, decided to start living an honest life, posing as someone else, but the criminals who knew him threatened to hand him over to the police. In the end, Vidocq got tired of this and he himself went to the police, offering cooperation and assistance in the fight against crime in Paris. He hired several more criminals and in a year managed to catch several hundred thieves, murderers and robbers.

Penetration into brothels, secret informants, decoys in prison cells, staged arrests - all this was resorted to by employees of Eugene-François Vidocq's organization, which became known as the Sûreté générale, or the Sûreté for short.

In addition to a good knowledge of criminal habits and psychology, Vidok was helped by his photographic memory of faces, as well as the systematic file of criminals he developed.

The first classic works of the detective genre are considered to be the stories of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, written in the 1840s. However, detective elements have been used by many authors before. For example, the “Notes” of the founder of the Sûreté (French criminal police) Eugene Vidocq, published in 1828, had a great influence on the development of detective literature. In the 1830-1840s, Vidocq repeatedly suggested plots for novels to Balzac and other writers.

And yet, the word “detective” in all three of its meanings came to us from English life and literature.

Putting police on duty

It must be said that the British resisted the creation of a professional criminal police longer than other Europeans, because they feared that it would be used by the government to suppress civil liberties. Only at the end of the 18th century did foot patrols appear in London. However, their number never exceeded fifteen people, which ultimately doomed them to powerlessness.

Corner Inn

By 1829, about thirty thousand people in London lived solely on robbery and theft. The situation became so serious that in 1842 Parliament finally gave permission for twelve professional police officers to be housed in the building where members of the Scottish royal family had previously stayed. This is where the name “Scotland Yard” (“Scottish Yard”) came from, which later became the name of the English criminal police.

Charles Dickens immortalized their work by writing the first English detective novel, Bleak House, in 1850. The prototype of the hero of Bucket's novel was one of the first Scotland Yard detectives, Inspector Field. For the first time in literature, it happened that the hero of a novel was introduced in this way:

- I'm Bucket, from the detectives. I am a secret police agent.

Field Inspector Charles Frederick Field

(1805—1874)

Charles Dickens was very interested in the mysterious world of detective police. He was on friendly terms with Inspector Field, often interviewed department employees and wrote enthusiastic articles in his magazine Household Words about the exciting adventures of the detectives, praising their exploits in the difficult field of fighting evil.

The word "detective" became a term denoting a criminologist, and quickly took root throughout the world.

Why is the London police force called "Scotland Yard"?

The name "Scotland Yard" (translated from English as "Scottish courtyard") goes back to the early Middle Ages. In the 10th century, the English king Edgar I the Peaceful (943-975) gave King Kenneth II of Scotland (before 954-995) a plot of land next to the Palace of Westminster in London on the condition that he would build a residence here, which would be considered the territory of Scotland, and would visit it annually as a sign of respect to the English crown.

This became the tradition of all Scottish kings, unless, of course, they were at war with England. But in 1603, the English crown passed to the Scottish Stuart dynasty, and Scotland Yard lost its political significance.

It was decided to divide the palace into two parts. The first was called "Greater Scotland Yard", and the second - "Middle Scotland Yard". They began to be used as government buildings. In 1829, the first police service appeared in London, created by Home Secretary Robert Peel (1788–1850). The residence of the London police became the same complex of buildings that several centuries ago belonged to members of the Scottish royal family.

Since then, the name “Scotland Yard” has been firmly assigned to the London police. The first years of the new service were especially difficult. The fact is that until 1829 there was no unified police service in London. The investigation of crimes was mainly carried out by people who, as a rule, did not have the slightest idea about the intricacies of investigative work. Anyone could become a “thief catcher” and receive a certain fee for capturing a criminal if his guilt was proven. However, many did this solely for profit, personal revenge, or simply out of a thirst for adventure. It is not surprising that the crime rate in the English capital was unusually high.

(The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)).

The building of modern Scotland Yard is located in Westminster. Administrative functions are assigned to staff who are based in the Empress State Building ( English), and operational management - to three Metcall centers ( English).

The largest police agency in England. It employs 31,000 officers who are responsible for an area of ​​1,606 km² and a population of 7.2 million people living in and around London.

Story

The name Scotland Yard comes from its original location on Great Scotland Yard Road ( English) in the Whitehall area. There are also interesting versions of the origin of the name of the street (literally - “Scottish Yard”). According to one of them, in the 10th century, the English king Edgar gave the Scottish king Kenneth a plot of land next to the Palace of Westminster in London. He demanded that King Kenneth build a residence there and visit it annually, thereby paying tribute to the kingdom of England on behalf of Scotland. King Kenneth built himself a palace and lived there whenever he came to England. The palace remained the possession of the Scottish kings and was considered the territory of Scotland. When Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, King James VI of Scotland became King of England and Scotland and the palace lost its original purpose. It was divided into two parts: the first was called “Greater Scotland Yard”, the second - “Middle Scotland Yard”. They began to be used as government buildings.

There are also versions that in the Middle Ages the street belonged to a man named Scott, and also that stagecoaches to Scotland once departed from this street.

By 1890, the London Police had grown from an initial 1,000 officers to 13,000, requiring greater administrative staff and a larger headquarters. As the size and responsibilities of the police continued to expand, there was a need to further increase personnel, so New Scotland Yard was expanded in the 1940s. This complex of buildings is currently included in the list of buildings of architectural, historical or cultural significance.

A number of protective measures were added to the exterior of New Scotland Yard in 2000, including concrete barriers in front of the lower windows to protect against car bombs. In addition, a concrete wall was added near the entrance to the building. Armed officers from the Diplomatic Protection Service ( English) patrol the façade of the building along with police guards.

Scotland Yard in pop culture

In fiction and film, the word "New Scotland Yard" is used as a metonym for the Greater London Police, sometimes to refer to the entire police force of the United Kingdom.

Many novelists use fictional Scotland Yard detectives as the heroes and heroines of their works: George Gideon in the works of John Creasy, Cmdr. Adam Dalglish created by F. D. James, Inspector Richard Urey in the works of Martha Grims are the most famous examples. Or, for example, female detective Molly Robertson-Kirk, known as Lady Molly of Scotland Yard(author - Baroness Emma Orczy). Many of Agatha Christie's detective novels feature Scotland Yard detectives, especially in the Hercule Poirot series.

In the 30s of the 20th century, inexpensive detective magazines were common, using a popular brand in their title: “Scotland Yard”, “Scotland Yard Detective Stories” or “Scotland Yard International Detective”. Despite the names, they focused more on tacky US crime stories.

Scotland Yard served as the title of a series of low-budget films made in the 1961s. Each episode was a reconstruction of a real detective story.

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Notes

Excerpt describing Scotland Yard

Sonya's letter to Nicholas, which was the fulfillment of his prayer, was written from Trinity. This is what caused it. The thought of Nicholas marrying a rich bride occupied the old countess more and more. She knew that Sonya was the main obstacle to this. And Sonya’s life recently, especially after Nikolai’s letter describing his meeting in Bogucharovo with Princess Marya, became harder and harder in the countess’s house. The Countess did not miss a single opportunity to make an offensive or cruel hint to Sonya.
But a few days before leaving Moscow, touched and excited by everything that was happening, the Countess, calling Sonya to her, instead of reproaches and demands, turned to her with tears and prayed that she, by sacrificing herself, would repay for everything, what was done for her was to break her ties with Nikolai.
“I will not be at peace until you give me this promise.”
Sonya burst into tears hysterically, answered through her sobs that she would do everything, that she was ready for anything, but she did not make a direct promise and in her soul could not decide on what was demanded of her. She had to sacrifice herself for the happiness of the family that fed and raised her. Sacrificing herself for the happiness of others was Sonya's habit. Her position in the house was such that only on the path of sacrifice could she show her virtues, and she was accustomed and loved to sacrifice herself. But first, in all acts of self-sacrifice, she joyfully realized that by sacrificing herself, she thereby raised her worth in the eyes of herself and others and became more worthy of Nicolas, whom she loved most in life; but now her sacrifice had to consist in giving up what for her constituted the entire reward of the sacrifice, the entire meaning of life. And for the first time in her life, she felt bitterness towards those people who had benefited her in order to torture her more painfully; I felt envy of Natasha, who had never experienced anything like this, never needed sacrifices and forced others to sacrifice herself and yet was loved by everyone. And for the first time, Sonya felt how, out of her quiet, pure love for Nicolas, a passionate feeling suddenly began to grow, which stood above rules, virtue, and religion; and under the influence of this feeling, Sonya involuntarily, learned by her dependent life of secrecy, answered the countess in general, vague words, avoided conversations with her and decided to wait for a meeting with Nikolai so that in this meeting she would not free her, but, on the contrary, forever bind herself to him .
The troubles and horror of the last days of the Rostovs’ stay in Moscow drowned out the dark thoughts that were weighing on her. She was glad to find salvation from them in practical activities. But when she learned about the presence of Prince Andrei in their house, despite all the sincere pity that she felt for him and Natasha, a joyful and superstitious feeling that God did not want her to be separated from Nicolas overtook her. She knew that Natasha loved one Prince Andrei and did not stop loving him. She knew that now, brought together in such terrible conditions, they would love each other again and that then Nicholas, due to the kinship that would be between them, would not be able to marry Princess Marya. Despite all the horror of everything that happened in the last days and during the first days of the journey, this feeling, this awareness of the intervention of providence in her personal affairs pleased Sonya.

(The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)).

The building of modern Scotland Yard is located in Westminster. Administrative functions are assigned to staff based in the Empress State Building (English), and operational management - to three Metcall centers (English).

The largest police agency in England. It employs 31,000 officers who are responsible for an area of ​​1,606 km² and a population of 7.2 million people living in and around London.

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Story

The name Scotland Yard comes from its original location on Great Scotland Yard in the Whitehall area. There are also interesting versions of the origin of the name of the street (literally - “Scottish Yard”). According to one of them, in the 10th century, the English king Edgar gave the Scottish king Kenneth a plot of land next to the Palace of Westminster in London. He demanded that King Kenneth build a residence there and visit it annually, thereby paying tribute to the kingdom of England on behalf of Scotland. King Kenneth built himself a palace and lived there whenever he came to England. The palace remained the possession of the Scottish kings and was considered the territory of Scotland. When Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, King James VI of Scotland became King of England and Scotland, and the palace lost its original purpose. It was divided into two parts: the first was called “Great Scotland Yard”, the second - “Middle Scotland Yard”. They began to be used as government buildings.

There are also versions that in the Middle Ages the street belonged to a man named Scott, and also that stagecoaches to Scotland once departed from this street.

By 1890, the London Police had grown from an initial 1,000 officers to 13,000, requiring greater administrative staff and a larger headquarters. As the size and responsibilities of the police continued to expand, there was a need to further increase personnel, so New Scotland Yard was expanded in the 1940s. This complex of buildings is currently included in the list of buildings of architectural, historical or cultural significance.

A number of protective measures were added to the exterior of New Scotland Yard in 2000, including concrete barriers in front of the lower windows to protect against car bombs. In addition, a concrete wall was added near the entrance to the building. Armed officers from the Diplomatic Protection Service (

22.09.2016 - 13:36

The first London policemen settled in a complex of buildings where Scottish kings used to stay when visiting the London court. This is where the name of the English criminal police comes from - Scotland Yard (Scottish Yard).

London - the capital of the underworld

Surprisingly, until the first third of the 19th century, London - the center of one of the largest empires at that time - did not have its own police.

While almost all more or less large cities in the world have already acquired officers of the law, residents of the capital of Foggy Albion limited themselves to the services of hired private detectives, and the city was literally mired in crime.

This situation has arisen solely because of the Londoners themselves. The British public sincerely believed that the existence of the police was a gross violation of civil liberties. As a result, anyone who wanted could take on the role of a justice of the peace, detective or informer, which is what many did.

At the same time, numerous justices of the peace used their position to make money through bribes and concealment. Informers, in view of the fact that when they caught a thief and convicted him, they received a reward from the amount of a fine, and in the case of solving a murder - a monetary bonus, sometimes they themselves secretly pushed weak-willed people to commit a crime, after which they dragged them to the judge.

Prisons then served rather as a transit point between this world and that world, since most sentences sounded the same - the death penalty, and therefore such a “detective” usually had to fear revenge only from the friends and relatives of the convicted person, but not from himself.

Bloody "detective"

One of the most famous “detectives” of this kind in England was named Jonathan Wild. He called himself: “The secret detective, the general of great Britain and Ireland,” but in reality he was an extraordinary criminal, sending to the gallows those who did not want to obey him.

Having thus destroyed about a hundred particularly stubborn thieves, Wild made a good fortune for himself and created what to some extent can be called the police, although most of all this organization resembled American gangster clans. It all ended with Wild himself being hanged for robbery in 1725.

After a quarter of a century, one of the few honest London magistrates finally spoke out in all seriousness against the growing lawlessness. It was the writer Henry Fielding. As a Westminster magistrate, he saw crime sweeping through Britain, and then managed to get subsidies from the Home Office to create a London police force.

The first metropolitan police officers (and there were only a dozen of them) were actually Fielding’s assistants, but now they began to receive a regular salary from the state - one guinea a week. They were distinguished from ordinary citizens by their red vests, and since Fielding Court was located on Bow Street, the police began to be called Bow Street Runners.

Fielding's assistants had a lot of work to do. Having changed clothes, they visited brothels, communicated with paid informers, tried to remember faces, and patiently tracked down criminals.

However, bow street runners should not be idealized under any circumstances. Some of them made money in less respectable ways, exposing the innocent in court if the criminals paid well for it, or negotiating with thieves to release them for a fairly tidy sum. But in any case, Bow Street Runners were better than nothing. Moreover, Fielding himself tried to get rid of unscrupulous assistants and, moreover, sincerely tried to create a real criminal police: he kept a register of criminals known to him; When searching for robbers, murderers and thieves, Fielding corresponded with other justices of the peace and published lists and signs of those wanted in newspapers in England.

When Henry Fielding died in 1754, his half-brother John became chief of police. John Fielding created armed Bow Street patrols and mounted patrols that were supposed to patrol the roads. The mounted police, however, did not last long because Fielding did not have enough money to maintain them. But this is not the most interesting thing. John Fielding was blind. Legends say that by the end of his life he could distinguish three thousand criminals only by their voices!

Bobby on the streets

The Bow Street Runners lasted for almost a hundred years, and during that time they were the only criminologists in London. However, their number for the entire time did not exceed ten to fifteen people, which was extremely small for a huge city in which about thirty thousand scum lived exclusively by robbery and assault.

In 1828, there were entire areas of London where people were robbed even during the day. The situation was so serious that the Home Secretary, Robert Peel, finally decided to create a police force, for which he had to endure a fierce battle in Parliament. However, on December 7, 1829, a thousand policemen in black top hats went to their police stations located throughout the city. The cylinders were meant to demonstrate to Londoners that their freedoms were in no way violated, and it was not the soldiers, but the citizens themselves who took it upon themselves to protect them. It was then that British police officers received the nicknames "Peeler", "Copper" and "Bobby" after the first heads of police stations.

"I am a detective"

At first it seemed that everything was getting better. The police began to ensure external order in the city, but... only external. It is clear that not a single thief will break into a house in broad daylight in front of a servant of the law, but night life has not become safer, rather the opposite. At night, robbers and bandits intensified even more, the number of crimes did not decrease, they only became even more sophisticated, and the police had neither the experience nor the time to investigate crimes that had already been committed, they could only half-heartedly try to prevent them.

Only a handful of Bow Street runners, themselves plagued by corruption, could fight the criminals. In the end, several particularly brutal murders occurred in a row in London, after which, in 1842, the Home Office took another important step: a dozen police officers put on purely civilian clothes and began to gain experience in investigating crimes that had already been committed. These people occupied three small rooms in Scotland Yard.

Author Charles Dickens immortalized the work of the first British detectives in 1850 when he wrote the crime novel Bleak House. In his main character, Scotland Yard detective Inspector Bucket, the writer portrayed the real-life Inspector Field. For the first time in English literature, the hero of a novel was introduced with the words: “I am Bucket, detective, police detective, intelligence officer, investigator.” Since then, the word "detective" has spread throughout the world.

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