Divisions

Within the Metropolitan Police Force divisions are indentified by either a one or two character alpha code. Two maps showing the divisions in 1837 and 1921 are available. Sometimes the geographical area covered by a division was further divided into sub-divisions; one such example is Carter Street, shown here as in 1932. As with many large organisations, the Metropolitan Police has undergone a number of boundary changes since its inception. This is particularly noticeable in the Refused Charge Books, which are unique to a given police station.

Beats

The route taken by a policeman on patrol is known as the beat and will follow a predefined route. Each police station will have a Beat Book in which all of the beats within its jurisdiction are defined.

In 1870 E (Holborn) Division comprised three sub-divisions: Bow Street, George Street and Hunter Street. Bow Street sub-division corresponds to the area marked as F Division on the 1837 map of the divisions with the other two sub-divisions corresponding to the area designated E Division. By 1932 Bow Street sub-division had lost the area to the west of St Andrews Street to C Division and gained the area bounded by New Oxford Street, St Giles Circus, High Street and Shaftesbury Avenue from the George Street sub-division.

Although labelled T Div, this book can only relate to either a sub-division or a section since T Division covers an area stretching some 14 miles westwards from Hammersmith and northwards from the Thames to a line running approximately due west from Shepherd's Bush (1921 map). The beats described in this book cover the area either side of the Uxbridge Road between Ealing and Hanwell, an area that lies within X Division on the 1921 map - possibly Ealing sub-division. A note dated 1936 implies that the area covered by this book had been taken into T Division during a then recent boundary change.

Hampton section is part of the Twickenham sub-division within T Division.

Neither of the T Division books are dated, their dates have been taken from supplementary notes added to the text.