Two hundred years of the UK’s oldest police force, Glasgow’s most famous murders and robberies – and how The Stone of Destiny ended up in a Glasgow police station. They’re all at the centre of a remarkable museum in Merchant City.
The Glasgow Police Museum in Bell Street tells the story of the city’s police force, founded by the city’s Merchant and Trades Baillies in 1779 and set up under an act of Parliament in 1800.
The first central police office was in Albion Street and the first Muster held in the Laigh Kirk (Tron Church). It was attended by the Chief Constable, sergeants, policemen and ‘Watchmen,’ the latter’s role including the important job of calling the hour. Officers patrolled in top hats.
The fascinating array of exhibits includes weapons, medals, uniforms worn not only in Glasgow but by police around the world, and a charge book signed by Britain’s first detective, Peter McKinley, in 1817.
Among featured equipment are wooden rattles, known as clappers (source of the phrase ‘Run like the clappers’) used as a warning until replaced by whistles.
Featured infamous crimes include investigations into bodysnatching from the Ramshorn Church graveyard, the robbery of the Paisley Union Bank in Ingram Street in 1811 and the case of New York-born Peter Manuel, hung in Barlinnie for the murder of seven people in 1958.
The Stone of Destiny, the 150kg sandstone block on which monarchs were crowned and stolen from Westminster Abbey by a group of Glasgow University students, was kept in the central police station in 1951 after it was recovered. Police officers used it as a card table, saying they’d sat on it longer than any King or Queen. A copy, made for a 2008 film, occupies one of the cabinets.
Run by retired policemen and set up by the Glasgow Police Heritage Society, the museum was named Glasgow’s ‘Best Day Out’ in 2019 and Museum of the Year in 2024.
Free to visit, it receives no public funding and is totally financed by donations from visitors, more than 11,000 of whom come each year.
Curator Alastair Dinsmor (retired) retired as an Inspector after 33 years service and was awarded an MBE for his services to police heritage.
“We’re very proud of what we have here and always ready to answer questions and chat,” he says. “The personal touch enhances the experience. What drives me on is a passion for preserving Glasgow’s police history. it’s amazing – and unique.”
Glasgow Police Museum, 1st floor 30 Bell Street, G1 1LG
Tel. 0141 552 1818
Em: curator@policemuseum.org.uk
Open April-October Mon-Saturday 10-4.30, Sunday 12-4.30
1 November – 31 March Tuesday 10-4.30, Sunday 12-4.30
Read about Alastair’s private collection at dinsmorepolicecollection.uk