The latest exhibition at London Archives explores Londoners’ relationship with crime.
Moll Cutpurse, Dick Turpin, Oscar Wilde, William Anthony and Sylvia Pankhurst are among the thieves, rogues, demonstrators, law enforcers, victims — and those who simply didn’t align with the society of their time — who appear in Londoners on Trial: Crime, Courts and the Public 1244-1924.
As they always do for their excellent free exhibitions, the team has rooted through its extensive Clerkenwell archives, producing an array of fascinating material, including original posters offering cash rewards for the apprehension of highwaymen and footpads; a photo of William Anthony (1789-1864) one of the East End’s last nightwatchmen; and information about Mary Frith — aka Moll Cutpurse — the cross-dressing pickpocket of 17th century London.
There’s also this rather sloppy scene of a 19th-century street bust-up — one participant using an umbrella (how very London):
A (police) line-up of events supplement the exhibition, including a talk on the Questioning of Eleanor Rykener (dating back to 1395, this is is the oldest known document in the collection that speaks directly to LGBTQ+ history); a screening of silent Hitchcock film The Lodger; and an artist-led workshop in which you’re encouraged to respond to your experience of the exhibition, through empathetic drawings.
As the exhibition’s on for a year — and it’s free to access — we daresay it’d be criminal to miss it.
Londoners on Trial: Crime, Courts and the Public 1244-1924, London Archives, 9 March 2026-25 February 2027, free. You can also sign up for one of the occasional curator-led exhibition tours (these cost £5 per person)
