London's oldest police station converted into museum-cum-hotel

One of the oldest police stations have been converted to a museum for memories of Bow Street Runners

One of the first police stations of London, located in the Covent Garden area, has now been converted into a museum. The structure will now host visitors and let them step into the premises to get a better understanding of how the station worked in history.

This conversion will give locals a chance to step into the premises of the station's old detention cells. Converting this station into a museum gave the authorities a chance to "ensure that an important piece of London history and such an iconic building was brought back to life and it gave us an opportunity to really showcase what was taking place within these four walls," said museum curator Jen Kavanagh.

The building was made in 1881 as a police station that housed the operations of Bow Street Runners — London’s first professional police force formed in 1749 and later merged with the Metropolitan Police. It also had a magistrates’ court inside the building.

The police station closed down in 1992 and the magistrates' court shut down its operation in 2006.

Personalities such as writer Oscar Wilde, and suffragettes Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst had appeared in the building during their times of turbulence.

Visitors can now visit the detention rooms, prison cells and offices of ground floor as the upper floors have been converted into a hotel. Uniforms, medals, handcuffs and original dock from court number two have been put on display in the newly-reconstructed museum.