Wimbledon WI visit to the Metropolitan Police
Thames Division Museum on Friday 19th February 2016.

After some misadventures with trains and an encounter with two officers from the riot squad I, and two others, were half an hour late joining the group from Wimbledon WI at the Thames Division Museum on Friday, 19 February. However, the knowledgeable volunteer curator, retired PC Robert Jeffries, later filled us in on what we had missed so this summary should not be found wanting.
The visit consisted of a talk of about one and a half hours and about 45 minutes viewing the exhibits in the relatively small museum.
By the last decade of the 18th century London importers were experiencing annual losses of about £500,000 through pilfering by ‘lumpers’ – the original term for dock labourers. About half of these losses were borne by the West India merchants. Patrick Colquhoun, a London magistrate and social reformer, alarmed at ‘the nature and extent of the various moral evils’ then afflicting society came up with a scheme for policing the metropolis which he presented to a member of the government who read it with interest. The scheme included a plan to register ‘Lumpers’ of good character and the formation of a River Police which Colquhoun discussed with a committee of the West India merchants who unanimously endorsed it. Meanwhile two other magistrates, John Harriott and Mr. Staples, had also become concerned by the extent of theft from merchant vessels. Harriott wrote to the Duke of Portland, Secretary of State for the Home Department, advising His Grace of the commercial benefits to London in general and the Treasury in particular if an official River Police force were formed to reduce cargo theft. The Treasury was losing an estimated £20,000 – £30,000 annually on customs duties applicable to goods that never reached the bonded warehouses. Harriott was a difficult personality who had, over the years, offended many people including Colquhoun and, presumably, the Duke of Portland who never answered his letter. Staple took Harriott’s idea to Colquhoun who was then in the process of amending his own treatise with legal advice from Jeremy Bentham, the 18th century lawyer, philosopher and social reformer. Colquhoun was so impressed with Harriott’s ideas that he suggested they put aside their differences, amalgamate their ideas into one treatise and re-present it to the government. This they did and the Chancellor of the Exchequer promptly agreed to meet part of the expense of establishing an experimental ‘Marine Police Establishment’ for one year and the West India merchants agreed to meet the balance. Colquhoun became the ‘Superintending Magistrate’, Harriott the ‘Resident Magistrate’, and the mooted register of Master Lumpers was created. Thus in 1798 the first workers ‘closed shop’ came into being and the first official, state sponsored police force in the world was founded. The total set-up and running costs for that initial year were £4,200. The new force of 50 officers, armed with muskets, policed about 33,000 river workers of whom about 11,000 were, according to Colquhoun, known criminals.
The new force soon proved its worth: within the year £122,000 worth of cargo was saved and many people were rescued from the river. But, as can be imagined, the river workers were not happy about the significant reduction in the perks of their trade or the exclusion from the docks of those deemed to be of bad character. Before long the first protesters rioted outside the new Police Station at 98, Wapping High Street (which is still Thames Division Headquarters today). About 2,000 rioters converged outside the building intent on burning it down with Harriott and some of the officers inside. The riot was quelled but during the conflict Gabriel Franks, who as a registered Master Lumper was seen by the mob as in cahoots with the police, was shot and died later in hospital. Gabriel has the dubious distinction of being the first recorded ‘police’ death.
The success of the force was such that in 1800 Parliament passed the Marine Police Bill which established the force by law and brought it directly under Home Office control. Its strength was increased to 88 officers and watermen and their remit was extended throughout the London Metropolitan area. The Marine Police were the official London Police force until 1829 when it became Thames Division of the newly established Metropolitan Police force.
It is possible to trace the social history of London through some of the significant crimes and accidental disasters that the Division had to deal with during the 19th century. For example, on the evening of 3 September 1878 the pleasure steamer Princess Alice was within sight of North Woolwich pier on her return journey from a day trip to Sheerness when she collided with a collier, SS Bywell Castle. The steamer was spliced in two and sank within four minutes with the loss of more than 650 lives. The unusual speed with which the victims were sucked down into the river and the appalling condition of recovered bodies was attributed to the 75 million gallons of raw sewage that was then being released twice daily into the Thames from the Barking and Crossness outfalls of the recently constructed London Drainage system. The evening discharge had occurred about one hour before the accident. This stimulated research into sewage disposal which eventually led to the sophisticated sewage treatment centres in use around the world today. At the time the proposed short term solution was to take the raw sewage far out to sea by boat! The tragedy also led to the modernisation of the River Police when The Board of Trade enquiry into the accident resolved that Thames Division, which was still using rowing boats, should be equipped with steam launches to make them ‘…better able to perform rescues’.
After a fascinating talk by the curator we were free to examine the museum’s exhibits. These include uniforms and documents tracing the history of the River police from its inception to the present day, everyday police hardware from handcuffs to cutlasses, the ensign from the ill-fated Princess Alice and much else.
More information about the museum can be found at http://www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk/museum.html and a more comprehensive history of the River police, including details of some of the infamous crimes they have dealt with, can be found at http://www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk/history.html

Miriam
24 February 2016.
My thanks to Vanessa for guiding me to the above mentioned websites.

Wimbledon WI visit to the Fan Museum at Greenwich
On 20th January 2016
Fifteen of us visited this fascinating museum on 20th January 2016.
The Museum is housed in two adjoining houses, built in 1721 in the reign of George I, that have been meticulously restored to their original glory.
We were greeted in the Reception Room by Helene Alexander, the founder and current Director of the Museum Trust, who gave us a brief overview of the foundation of the Trust, the work involved in restoring the buildings and the care and maintenance of the collections. We then adjourned to the Orangery for coffee and biscuits.
Although not part of the museum as such the Orangery is worth mentioning. Looking out over a charming garden laid out in the formal style if the early 18th century, the Orangery walls are covered in Italianate murals (painted by Jane Barraclough, a theatrical designer with whom Helene has been friends since they were at art school together in the 1950s). The central light fitting is a chandelier style piece in Venetian glass acquired by Helene on a recent visit to Venice. The tables were laid with fine china, also provided by Helene, which complemented the elegant surroundings.
After coffee we returned to the Reception Room, met our very knowledgeable guide, Mary Kitson, and began our tour.
Mary explained that the museum comprises two distinct displays: one on the ground floor which is permanent and serves as an introduction to fans – their history, manufacture and variety; the other on the first floor which is thematic and changes several times a year. It was our good fortune to be the first group to visit this, the museum’s 25th anniversary, year. For this celebratory event the museum has dug deep into its collections and mounted a display of remarkably diverse fans spanning the period 1590 to 2016.
We began in the Reception Room itself which is dedicated to un-mounted and extended European fan leaves dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These are, in effect, the decorated or painted leaves of fans that have been framed as pictures after the fan has been dismantled. Mary explained that Monarchs, particularly Louis XIV of France, habitually requisitioned the precious metals and gems that decorated fans to finance their wars. As the leaves of the fans were usually works of art in themselves the owners did their best to conserve them. Among the unmounted fan leaves displayed in the Reception Room is an elaborate ‘painting’ on vellum depicting the Grand Dauphin’s twentieth birthday celebrations. This ‘window’ onto French Court life during the reign of Louis XIV is one of the museum’s many highlights.
From the Reception Room we moved to The Green Room. Largely devoted to explaining how fans are made, this room also houses two of the museum’s ‘gems’: a fan painted by Walter Sickert and a fan-shaped design by Paul Gauguin.
We then moved to the first floor where the special 25th anniversary display is mounted. This is a dazzling array of fans, once the property of Royal and other high-born European ladies, and mostly from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Interesting as it would be, it is not practical to discuss in detail all of the beautiful and historic fans that are on display so I have chosen three that, between them, give an idea of the extent and interest of the collections.
I will begin with The Elizabethan Folding Fan (c.1590-1630). This is an exquisitely embroidered silk fan with ivory sticks joined at the pivot end with cord or ribbon. This type of fan is thought to have been fashionable for only a short time and was often worn with the ‘wheel farthingale’ dresses popular at the Court of Elizabeth I. Indeed, the fan is displayed beneath a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in which she is shown wearing a very similar fan on her girdle. Thought to be the only surviving fan of this type, it was acquired for the Nation for £45,000. The acquisition was funded by the Friends of the Museum and grants from such sources as the Art Fund, National Heritage Memorial Fund and other philanthropic sources.
From this late 16th/early 17th century fan we jump to the late 19th century and ‘Stephanie’s fan’.
This beautiful fan was given to Princess Stephanie of the Belgians by her aunt and uncle, the Count and Countess of Flanders, on her ill-fated marriage to Prince Rudolph von Hapsburg (heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1881. The sticks of mother of pearl are beautifully carved with flowers and tendrils and musical instruments and there is a gold and diamond loop on either side of the rivet. There is applied gold to the guards which are further decorated with fine silverwork and 1,500 rose diamonds with a diamond crowned ‘S’ on one of them. The double vellum leaf is painted on both sides, signed Cesare Dell ‘Acqu and dated 1881.
The Museum’s newest acquisition is a very modern fan entitled ‘Swan Lake’. This was made by Sylvain Le Guen just two weeks ago. The sticks and guards are ebony. The sticks are overlaid with mother of pearl and the front guard with crystals and a ‘lacing’ of black vinyl. The leaf is white organza applied with white and black petals and bordered with pearl paint. The black petals are further applied with white ostrich feather barbs, black rooster and black swansdown.

These three fans demonstrate what has changed and what has remained constant in the art of fan-making over the centuries. Swan Lake, made in 2016, has the same basic structure as the Elizabethan Fan and Stephanie’s Fan but each of the three represents its own time in the materials used and the decorations applied to them. It was interesting to learn that fan making is still a thriving art form and an industry. I am reliably informed that Sylvain Le Guen is currently employed restoring a fan of blue jay feathers for the Duchess of Cornwall: at the other end of the scale fans are still being mass produced in China (where fans originated) for weddings, parties, theatrical productions and decorations of all descriptions.
Miriam
21st January 2016.
With many thanks to Camilla Hiscock, Curatorial Assistant at the Fan Museum, for providing me with unpublished information about the three very special fans described above.