Crime Museum Uncovered

Ghoulish but fascinating exhibition at the Museum of London featuring items from the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum sometimes called the Black Museum.

The first section on the 19th century was set up like the original museum with a wonderful hotchpotch of exhibits from death masks of criminals hung at Newgate, through court room sketches and the old visitors’ book of the museum. I found the room of execution ropes rather difficult as I am against capital punishment and I found the fact that there was a record of who these ropes had killed quite eerie.

The main section was arranged with the stories of 24 cases from 1905 to 1975 along one side of the display and cases on types of crime and detective methods down the other side. The cases side was fascinating but a bit cramped. It told the story of the crime and they had a small display case of objects from it. Again it was eerie looking at murder weapons. I was particularly taken by the case local to where I live of Nellie Trew who was last seen leaving Plumstead library. David Greenwood was executed for her murder but the evidence seemed slim. It left me wanting to read more.

The last section looked at modern crimes including terrorism. I found it strange to see one of the mortar bombs that were fired on Downing Street as I’d heard it go off at the time! The show ended with an AV display discussing how the collection is still used to train detectives, why it is not a public collection and some of the raison d’etre for showing it now.

Closes on 10 April 2016.

Review
Telegraph

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