Watchman's box

Before the creation of the Metropolitan Police force in 1829, local parishes employed watchmen to patrol the streets at night and keep order. Public opinion of parish watchmen was not high; they were often lampooned in caricatures.

This wooden box stood near Furnival's Inn in Holborn. It would have been used for shelter by watchmen. Furnival's Inn, originally an Inn of Chancery, provided rented accommodation during the 19th century. Charles Dickens leased rooms there in 1835. In his final work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), it appears as a hotel.