A group of 10 members went on a visit to the Police Museum which is found in Marlowe House in Sidcup. It is a very small museum housed in one room but we were given a guided tour by the very informative Edward Smith, the Met Police’s Curatorial Assistant. He told us about the start of the Police in 1829, when Robert Peel’s Police Act was introduced and how people were sceptical and thought they might be a variation of the red coats or the Army. To begin the tour we saw artifacts that were used to define the beats that the police walked – they had to be close together so that they could hear each other blow their whistles calling for help. We saw parts of uniforms, the originals being dark blue so not to be confused with other groups and with top hats so that they looked more like the public and were approachable. The top hats were rigid using a cane structure so that the policeman could stand on it and see over fences or crowds if needed. We learnt about the roles that women had since 1919 and that they were not given the power of arrest until 1923. Their uniforms at one point were made by Harrods but their wages were docked until the uniform was paid for. They were given long laced up leather boots that were left over from the land army. Women were eventually integrated in the main structure of the Met with equal pay in the 1970s but still had the prefix ‘W’ until 1999. We saw medals and rewards and finished with A set of drawings done of defendants and others in court. It was a great visit and Edward hosted us well and managed to answer all of our questions.