Tales of the Riverbank

Hi, I’ve just joined this site and I am struck by the amount of creative writing that is being put out there; poetry, (I might give that a go on another day) and blogs to name just two that I have seen so far….And last night I thought “Why not me”?…..But, where to start?

Many years ago I asked an author “If I want to try creative writing….Where do I start”? Her answers were quite simple….”Write about something you know about”….”Don’t try writing too much to start with”….”Give yourself plenty of time and most importantly….Have fun! If you enjoy writing the words, then someone else might also enjoy reading them.”

Good advice….But what do I know about?….Well, I know about policing in London….I spent 32 years in the Metropolitan Police. And I know about history….I’ve always been fascinated by the history by the city of my birth….And I can tell a good story…. I know this because a magistrate once told me that I was an “Excellent” story teller!….. So that’s where I am going to start!

Now the second half of my police service was spent policing the River Thames and the best stories in my repertoire come from that period of my life…. I ran the small museum which records the history of the Thames Police….First question…”Why would a small East London police station have its own museum”? (and it’s a very good question!)….The Thames River Police have the honour of being the world’s first body of organised police and every modern civilian police officer all over the world can trace his or her police history back to Monday 2nd July 1798 at 0500 when the Resident Magistrate, John Harriott would have sent out the very first ever police patrols on the river Thames (in rowing galleys) in order to prevent the huge amount of crime that was quite literally threatening the future of the whole country during the Napoleonic Wars….And that work is still being continued from the same location to this very day (220 years to the day, and counting!) Yes…. You read it correctly. When we are discussing the origins of modern policing; you can forget about the Bow Street Runners and Sir Robert Peel’s Peelers…. Modern policing as we know it today (or perhaps, as we might wish it to be today) where the primary objective of efficient policing is the prevention of crime, began all those years ago at Wapping, East London.

In coming days I might write about eighteenth riots that led to the death of the first modern police officer…I might write about catastrophic shipwrecks…. I might write about murder most foul and ‘orrid…..All of these might be covered in days to come…..

But tomorrow I shall begin my tales in the mid twentieth century with a little known story of Cold War intrigue and politics involving Winston Churchill and a writ of Habeas Corpus.

Tune in tomorrow….Same time…. Same channel for the next thrilling instalment of Tales of the Riverbank!