The history of the Bow Street Police Stations.

                                                                       Time Line for Bow Street Police Station 1820 -1890.


1829 - The Metropolitan Police force is founded. First police station for F Division (Covent Garden) is the old local watch house in St. Pauls churchyard. The building is too small for the number of officers.
1832  - The first Bow Street Police Station is built at 33/34 Bow Street. St. Pauls churchyard venue is closed.
1852 - London Police Stations are instructed to have lights placed on the front of the building.
1856 - March the Theatre Royal (what is now known as the Royal Opera House) is destroyed by fire.
1858- May  the third Theatre Royal (the present building) reopens.
1861 - February 1861 - police stations instructed to place blue glass in lights outside police stations.
1861-  November - Prince Albert taken ill.
1861 -December - Prince Albert dies and Queen Victoria  enters mourning.
1881 -April  new police station completed at 28 Bow Street.
1881 -August - Police Order instructing immediate occupancy of the new station with 106 PC’s. 33 - 34 Bow Street will eventually become a police section  house. 


The history of the Blue Lamps and the stories about the Bow Street white lamps.


Blue lamps are a familiar sight on police stations throughout the country. Bow Street is one of a few stations to differ from the norm. The building at 28 Bow Street has white lights. The legend has it that Queen Victoria, whilst travelling to the Royal Opera House, took offence to the blue light on the police station and, as a result, it was changed to a white light. The story has been repeated many times, for example, the following was included in a book entitled ‘The rise of Scotland Yard’. “in 1855 the Emperor of the French and the Empress Eugenie paid a state visit to London. “ In the absence of any written record, the 19th of April in that year may be suggested as a possible date of an incident of minor historic interest to the police of London, for on that evening the Queen and Prince Consort escorted the Emperor and Empress to a State performance at the Covent Garden theatre. All that is known is that on some similar occasion between...1847 and the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria took exception to the blue lamp over the door of Bow Street Police Station immediately opposite what was to become the Royal Opera House. And the blue lamp was removed.”
The above is a very nice story but there are a couple of errors. 
1. The date of the incident cannot be April 1855 as blue lights on police stations didn’t arrive until February 1861.
2. The blue lamp couldn’t be on the Police Station directly opposite the theatre as it wasn’t built in that position until 1881.
I accept there is a slight possibility that such an incident could have taken place between February 1861 and December 1861. Queen Victoria’s journals show two visits to the English Opera in on 8th and 25th February 1861. The next one I managed to find is 4th July 1890. I did turn up a quote from Queen Victoria’s journals dated 26th December 1876 whilst she was at Windsor Castle. “...went to St Georges Hall where a concert took place .... Such a real elevating pleasure to hear anything of that sort again for the first time since 61.”
There is no mention of the Queen objecting to blue lamps or lights on the police station near the English Opera.
Another well known theory is that Queen Victoria objected to the blue lamp as it reminded her of the ‘Blue Room’ in which Prince Albert died.
My only comment to that is ‘ see the previous paragraph’.
So is the story fact or just an urban myth. 
During my own research I have contacted many writers and researchers of Victorian history. To date no one has found any record of Queen Victoria making such a request. I have requested a search of the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle with a negative result. I am currently awaiting a response from the Duke of Bedford’s archives regarding the first Bow Street Police Station as the Bedford Estate held the original lease for the premises.
Enquiries with the Duke of Bedford estate led to the leases for the Bow Street Police Stations being examined at the City of London Archives. Nothing useful was found for 28 Bow Street but there was an unexpected bonus for the police station at 33-34 Bow Street. The lease contained a floor plan of the police station which we had never seen before.
I am unable to tell you how many photographs of Victorian London I have looked at in an attempt to find a photograph of the first police station, but it runs into many many thousands. To date I have not found one. I have turned up a couple of prints but they are too early, pre 1861, and clearly have the original white lights.
I have also examined the plans for the second police station. They clearly show that the lights at the front of the police station are white lights. There were six lights on the original plans, two for the court entrance, two for the police station yard entrance, and two for the front entrance of the police station, which is directly opposite the Royal Opera House.
So what do I think ? I hate to say it, because it’s a lovely story, but I think we have an urban myth regarding Queen Victoria’s involvement. I would love to be proved wrong but on the evidence so far it’s a myth. So, my conclusion at this stage is, as the Builder Magazine stated at the time, “The architect has designed the frontage of the police station to match the Royal Opera House opposite.”
There are still a couple of avenues of enquiry that might turn all of this on its head. Fingers crossed!!!! All that's required is one photograph of the police station at 28 Bow Street taken between 1881 - 1890 which could resolve everything. Or even a photograph of 33-34 Bow Street taken between 1870 and 1881 .
August 2022 - to date nothing has emerged to change my mind about the white lights. I’m still digging.
February 2023. A bit more information has come in recently but still nothing that helps the theory that Queen Victoria was involved in the decision to have white lights rather than blue. And so we still maintain, as stated above, that it was simply the architect's decision to design the building to blend in with the Opera House across the road and that blue lights would have looked incongruous. And so, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we believe that the stories about Queen Victoria and the white lights are apocryphal.
If anyone has any firm evidence to help with this research please get in touch by emailing from this website.
​info@bowstreetpolicestation.com
Ian Pickard, researcher.
Dave Allen, webmaster.