The History of the London Police
Today there are policemen everywhere but in 1700 London had no policemen at all. A few old men used to protect the city streets at night and they were not paid very much.
About three hundred years ago London was starting to get bigger. The city was very dirty and many people were poor. There were so many thieves who stole money in the streets that people stayed in their homes so much as possible.
In 1750 Henry Fielding started to pay a group of people to stop thieves. They were like policemen and were called ‘Bow Street Runners’ because they were working near Bow street.
Fifty years later there were 120 Bow Runners but London had become very big and needed more policemen. So, in 1829 the first metropolitan (or London) Police Force was started with 3000 officers.
Most of them were working on foot but a few rode horses. Until 1920 all the police in London were men. Today London police are quite well paid and for the few police officers who still ride horses the pay is even better than for the others.