Black Museum - Crime Museum

Crime Museum

The Museum was moved to New Scotland Yard in the 1980s and was subject to substantial renovation in recent years. the Crime Museum, as it is now called, currently resides in Room 101 at New Scotland Yard and consists of two sections. The first, a replica of the original museum, contains a substantial selection of melee weapons, some overt, some concealed, including shotgun umbrellas and numerous walking stick swords. The room also contains a selection of hangman's nooses, including that used to perform the UK's last-ever execution, and letters allegedly written by Jack the Ripper. The newer section of the museum contains many exhibits from 20th-century crimes, notably the fake De Beers diamond from the Millennium Dome heist and Dennis Nilsen's stove. The museum can be visited by Police officers from any of the country's police forces by prior appointment, though not without difficulty due to its popularity.

The Black Museum of criminal artefacts also hosts over 500 items preserved at a constant temperature of sixty-two degrees. A special place is reserved for a set of printing plates, a remarkable series of forged banknotes, and a cunningly hollowed-out kitchen door once used to conceal them. These items formerly belonged to Charles Black, the most prolific counterfeiter in the Western Hemisphere.