London's Police Courts in 1900

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Arthur H. Beavan, in Imperial London, first published 1901, made a brief survey of London's Police Courts at the time:

For those who are unaffected by the proximity of filthy humanity, or by overcrowding generally, there are few better places for the study of certain aspects of human nature, than the Metropolitan police courts.

The field is extensive enough; East, West, North, and South, from Greenwich to West London, from Stoke Newington Road to Lavender Hill, Wandsworth, they are to be found.

Indeed to attend them seriatim would prove a harder task than the most enterprising individual had bargained for.

Apart from the serious charges, there is a certain simplicity and patriarchal manner in police court proceedings, irresistibly attractive to the poor, that recalls the Cadi's primitive method of administering justice in the East.

Of formality there is little; no gowns, wigs, or other outward attributes of law are visible; and, saving at the Mansion House, the occupant of the Bench is in ordinary dress.

Thus in all their domestic trials and other difficulties, the toiling and suffering fly to the nearest magistrate as to a Deus ex machina who may possibly set right their wrongs gratuitously; and their confidence is seldom in vain.

They are certain of sound advice, but in times of great distress the magistrate is often overwhelmed by pathetic appeals for material assistance which he is powerless to render.

To begin with Bow Street.