A selection of 500 items from Scotland Yard’s ‘Black Museum’ – previously only open to serving police and select guests since its formation in 1874 – is to go on display later this year at the Museum of London.

For the first time ever, the collection of objects from the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum will be publicly displayed for an exhibition called The Crime Museum Uncovered.

Using evidence from real-life crime cases, visitors will be taken on a journey through some of the UK’s most notorious crimes, including the cases of Dr Crippen (1910), the Acid Bath Murderer (1949), the Great Train Robbery (1963), the Krays (1969) and the Millennium Dome diamond heist (2000). The exhibition, coming to the Museum of London this October, will aim to give a voice to the real people and stories behind each infamous crime.

The exhibition, which is being created with the support of the Metropolitan Police Service and the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC), will also examine some of the challenges faced in policing the UK capital of London, tackling themes from terrorism and espionage to counterfeiting and narcotics.

“Challenging and disturbing; familiar and unsettling, The Crime Museum Uncovered will use select objects from this extraordinary, hidden collection to consider the changing nature of crime and advances in detection over the last 140 years,” said Sharon Ament, director of the Museum of London.

“Through focusing on people – victims, perpetrators and police officers – we’ll use real objects to explore the human stories behind some of the UK’s most well-known crimes, personalising what is so often de-personalised. And in doing so, we’ll confront how, as a society, we respond when normality is shattered, lives are torn apart and we need to rebuild.”

London mayor Boris Johnson added: “The evolution of London’s police force plays a fascinating part in the history of our city. Many of the policing methods now used by forces all over the world were developed here in the capital by our pioneering policing techniques. This exhibition will bring this story alive, in some instances out from behind closed doors for the first time, allowing us to reflect on the victims at the centre of each of these cases and learn more about how the creativity of the past has shaped the way the police work today.”

The unique exhibition will be on display for six months. The Museum of London has been working closely with the independent London Policing Ethics Panel in the planning of the exhibition and has discussed how to ensure the interests of victims are protected with Baroness Newlove, the Victims' Commissioner.

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