Charge Books

These books record charges brought by the police against named persons; details include the name and address of the accused and witnesses, date and time charge made and the name of the person bringing the charge, the police officer taking the charge and the name of magistrate hearing the charge.

Crime Books

This book records crimes reported to the police and any action taken by them.

photograph of the cover of the Wellington Arch Occurrence Book

Occurrence Books

These contain reports of enquiries/observations made by the police whilst on patrol; incidents, in which a crime may, or may not, have been committed, attended by the police; attendance of person at a police station; or a person, who previously has been bailed, is notified not to attend a police station to answer his recognizance. One of them records a royal visit.

Refused Charge Books

The Refused Charge Book is used for specific charges made by the police or private persons and where the charge is subsequently dropped.

It has been stated elsewhere that these books can provide evidence of divisional boundary changes implemented at various times. For example, Chingford station transferred from N (Islington) Division to J (Hackney) Division in 1933; the Isle of Dogs station became part of H (Whitechapel) Division in 1934; in 1862 Southgate station was part of N (Islington) Division, by 1866 it was in Y (Highgate) Division and from 1934 it was part of Y (Wood Green) Division.

Note

Many of these items are large format (up to 375 x 515 mm) books. With the exception of the index pages (where included), the entries contained therein are written across the double page spread leading to large images. Thus it is necessary to reach a compromise between legibility for on-screen viewing and image size for download speed. Where legibility has been compromised, a larger image is available for viewing in a separate window.

Some of these images are available in colour, denoted by (col) after the menu entry. Because of their file size, these images should only be viewed over a broadband connection.

 

Scripti logo; scanning by scripti