NEN Gallery

In the late 18th century the river was crowded with ships; all waiting to unload their cargoes attracting every type of thief and villain. Dr. Patrick Colquhoun worked as a magistrate in London advocated enclosed docks where the unloading of cargo could be properly controlled. He also recommended the setting up of a semi official force of some 200 armed men, under a chief constable and responsible to a magistrate, paid for at the government's expense. The West India Company would in turn pay for a body of men to police the water and for watchmen on the quays. The river police were thus formed on July 2nd 1798, making it the oldest police force in the world.