1829 – the first police in London
We chose 1829 as a significant date because it was the year of the first police in London.
The first police were known as the Metropolitan Police Force. In the early 1800s local people made others parish constables serving a year at a time. This system goes back to the time of the Anglo-Saxons. Watchmen were another system made in the early 1800s. This was set-up under a law that was passed in the 1660s, in Charles II’s reign, so, because of this, they called them “Charleys”. Watchmen were supposed to patrol the streets at night; they had a box to rest in during this time.
The system of watchmen was designed at a time when the population was at 4-5 million and apart from London, no other town had more than 10, 000 people. However, in 1800 the population in Britain was 12 million and rising still. Several cities had a population of 50, 000 people. An example is Liverpool that had a population of 250, 000 people, however, this was only watched by 50 watchmen.
1829 was a significant year in history because without the police lots of the population could be in serious danger; they could be badly injured, or dead.