Thames Division

This plaque marks the spot where London's Marine Police were based in Wapping High Street, Tower Hamlets in 1798 (thirty-one years before the birth of the Met). Following the setting up of The Metropolitan Police in 1829 this force became absorbed as part of Thames Division (now Marine Support) in the Met. It is responsible for policing 84 miles of the River Thames from Teddington Lock to Erith, and 12 miles of rivers and navigable creeks in the London area.

Wapping was also the venue where the 'Hanging Judge Jeffries' would dispense summary justice to those who appeared at the original Thames Magistrates Court. Punishments ranged form transportation to the New World to execution. It is said that Jeffries would often hold court in the morning and then travel across the river to the Mayflower public house in Rotherhithe, where he would eat his lunch as those he'd sentenced were hanged on the distant foreshore.