Bow Street
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Bow Street is a thoroughfare in Covent Garden, Westminster London. It features as one of the streets on the standard London Monopoly board.
The area around Bow Street was developed by the Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford in the 1630s. Oliver Cromwell moved to Bow Street in 1645. Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford was born there in 1661.
The house at No. 4 Bow Street had been established as a courtroom in 1739 by Sir Thomas de Veil. The house was taken over by the novelist Henry Fielding in 1747 when he became a Justice of the Peace. He was appointed a Westminster magistrate in 1748 at a time when the craze for gin and resultant crime was at its height. There were eight licensed premises on the street and Fielding reported that every fourth house in Covent Garden was a gin shop. In 1749 as a response to the call to find an effective means to tackle the increasing crime and disorder, Fielding brought together eight trustworthy constables, who soon gained a reputation for honesty and efficiency in their pursuit of criminals. Initially nicknamed Robin Redbreasts, on account of their scarlet waistcoats, the constables came to be known as the Bow Street Runners. Fielding's blind half brother Sir John Fielding (known as the "Blind Beak of Bow Street") succeeded his brother as magistrate in 1754 and refined the patrol into first truly effective police force for the capital.
When the Metropolitan Police Service was established in 1829, a station house was sited at numbers 25 and 27. A purpose built police station and courthouse was built on the site between 1878 and 1881. Bow Street became one of the most famous police stations in the country. Bow Street magistrate's court remains the one of the most important magistrates courts in London, hearing the committal proceedings for many high profile cases and specialises in dealing with foreign extradition requests.