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We're marking #HistDay20 with another in our occasional series of #MuseumBeats. This time, we're donning our virtual boots for a tour of H ( @MPSWhitechapel) Division, one of the first 17 territorial divisions formed in 1829-30, initially bounded by the City and ... (1837) (1/n)
... New Road to west and east and Shoreditch and the Thames to north and south. One of the smallest but best-known divisions, its territory was at the centre of Victorian debates on class, criminality & immigration and has now found televisual fame. #MuseumBeats (2/n)
We begin where the area's policing began, just outside H Division's first borders at @MPSWapping, birthplace of the River Police (now @MPSonthewater) in 1798. That force also worked ashore investigating the Ratcliff Highway Murders in 1811. #MuseumBeats (3/n)
We walk west along the river, turning right onto Knighten Street and Vaughan Way, then continuing north up Dock Street and Leman Street. It was initially based at watch-houses left over from the old parish-constables system such as that at 76 Leman Street. (1870 map) (4/n)
This was the division's HQ by 1864, remaining so for most of the rest of the division's existence except 1947-1970. A new purpose-built station opened on the site in 1891 (1-2), followed by another in 1970 (3). #MuseumBeats (5/n)
The site had been expanded for the 1891 building by purchasing the site of the Garrick (later Royal Albert) Theatre next door (1 - #BoothMaps; 2 - 1890s via @LayersOfLondon), allowing it to accommodate single and married officers. Less than 300 yards to its south-west... (6/n)
... is the lost site of a London Docks station, recorded in 1864 (with Leman Street and Chapel Yard) as one of the division's three stations - Chapel Yard (1842 Robson's Street Directory) was near present-day Folgate Street. We continue north-west up ... (7/n)
... the rest of Leman Street and cross Whitechapel High Street. We continue about half a mile up Commercial Street to number 160, where on 23 March 1876 a new station designed by F H Caiger opened to replace Chapel Yard. (8/n)
In 1933 Commercial Street switched to neighbouring G (Finsbury) Division, returning to H in 1965. On our way back to Aldgate East station we make a brief detour down Fashion Street to see the site of the station opened at 66 Brick Lane in 1978. We then dog-leg onto ... (9/n)
... Commercial Road, heading east into the Stepney and Shadwell sub-divisions moved from K (Stepney) to H in May 1880. Walking for a mile and passing the famed Sidney Street, we finally turn left onto Exmouth Street & Aylward Street, pass the former Thames Police Court ... (10/n)
... and stop at the junction with East Arbour Street, site of the combined police station-court complex. First built on the site in 1841, it moved from K to H Division in the 1880 re-organisation. A temporary station opened in the old court 1920-23 during a rebuild. (11/n)
The new Arbour Square station (map - 1925) was badly damaged and 18 people injured by a V1 on 19 July 1944 but reopened that October and served as H Division's HQ from 1947 to 1970. We double back to West Arbour Street & head south, crossing... #MetAtWar (12/n)
... Commercial Road onto Devonport Street, right onto Cable Street and left onto King David Street. Just south of the corner with Juniper Street we find the site of Shadwell station, another H-to-K transfer, probably in 1880. (Image - 1902) (13/n)
Rebuilt in 1908, it was downgraded to a section house in 1933 and is where our virtual walk comes to an end. Hope you've enjoyed it! (Maps - Booth, 1890s, 1940s) #MuseumBeats #HistDay20 (14/end)
