Laura Sellers

The “Crime Museum Uncovered” is a temporary exhibition at the City of London Museum. I visited in February 2016 which turned out to be the last Sunday of half term so the exhibition was packed, in places this didn’t matter but there was definitely a feel of the London shuffle about the event.

The objects are drawn from the  Metropolitan Police Force archives (or Black Museum) which are usually closed to the public, so the majority of the objects have not been on display before, which in part accounts from the crowd. It is possibly one of the most fascinating but also grim collection of objects to be put into one archive.

The exhibition starts with a police car but then heads back to the nineteenth century. I was particularly  impressed with the hand out and labelling – enough info on each display to get it but a hand out styled like a nineteenth century newspaper gave extra information and hinted at the sensationalism of a murder case in the Victorian press. Below are two pictures of the leaflet they gave you as an exhibition guide for the nineteenth century, I think this is a very clever way of doing it which allowed the objects to be displayed in a very visual way and the space didn’t become even more crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part way round I realised my research is just a bit morbid. I was explaining the possible reasons for changes in hanging techniques (thickness of ropes and the move away from classic knots etc) to a friend, which is quite grim to say the least. After I stopped talking a lady stopped me and asked how a “nice young lady” knew so much about such a topic.

The second part of the exhibition is divided into 24 murder cases and each display focused on types of crime, guns, concealed weapons, drugs, abortion, terrorism etc. The curators managed to balance real peoples stories, not celebrating murder, and the public’s ongoing fascination with a “good” murder. ie a case with a sensational story.

The final room was the most unexpected to me, but I really appreciated its inclusion. It conveyed the discussion undertaken to decide which objects were chosen and why, in order to explain the decisions made behind the displays. Most were moral not aesthetic, for for example they did not include any stories of murder after 1975 out of respect to the victims (and murderers) families.

The only odd things about the exhibition was that the museum had a band playing, which I’m sure sounded lovely in the rest of the city museum but didn’t reflect the mood of the exhibition. It was upbeat and playful rather than feeling respectful of all the murder victims we were reading about!

I would absolutely recommend visiting this exhibition, and the City of London Museum which I did a whistle stop tour of but will be going back. I also bought the exhibition book which I wouldn’t normally do but I’m hopeful the contents will have been as thoughtfully curated as the exhibition itself.