On Night Patrol With PC Lew Tassell
Police Constable Lew Tassell of the City of London Police
“One week in December 1972, I was on night duty. Normally, I would be on beat patrol from Bishopsgate Police Station between 11pm-7am. But that week I was on the utility van which operated between 10pm-6am, so there would be cover during the changeover times for the three City of London Police divisions – Bishopsgate, Wood St and Snow Hill. One constable from each division would be on the van with a sergeant and a driver from the garage.
That night, I was dropped off on the Embankment during a break to allow me to take some photographs and I walked back to Wood St Police Station to rejoin the van crew. You can follow the route in my photographs.
The City of London at night was a peaceful place to walk, apart from the parts that operated twenty-four hours a day – the newspaper printshops in Fleet Street, Smithfield Meat Market, Billingsgate Fish Market and Spitalfields Fruit & Vegetable Market.
Micks Cafe in Fleet St never had an apostrophe on the sign or acute accent on the ‘e.’ It was a cramped greasy spoon that opened twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. During the night and early morning it served print-workers, drunks returning from the West End and the occasional vagrant.
Generally, we police did not use it. We might have been unwelcome because we would have stood out like a sore thumb. But I did observation in there in plain clothes sometimes. Micks Cafe was a place where virtually anything could be sourced, especially at night when nowhere else was open.”
Lew Tassell
Middle Temple Lane
Pump Court, Temple
King’s Bench Walk, Temple
Bouverie St, News of the World and The Sun
Fleet St looking East towards Ludgate Circus
Ludgate Hill looking towards Fleet St under Blackfriars Railway Bridge, demolished in 1990
Old Bailey from Newgate St looking south
Looking north from Newgate St along Giltspur St, St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Newgate St looking towards junction of Cheapside and New Change – buildings now demolished
Cheapside looking east from the corner of Wood St towards St Mary Le Bow and the Bank
HMS Chrysanthemum, Embankment
Constable Lew Tassell, 1972
Photographs copyright © Lew Tassell
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Great pics with atmosphere, a year before I joined the Met at Rochester Row. I used to love ‘Nights’, it allowed you to wander and discovered places that you didn’t have time to do or simply just missed when on Day shifts. Thanks for the memories and here’s to the 6th 😉
What stands out in all of these photographs is the authenticity of the street lighting reflecting in the air of wintery darkness. We see this particularly so with the photographs Middle Temple Lane and Pump Court Temple and then the white-out orb effect of the lights in King’s Bench Walk, Temple whereas modern day street lighting seems more dissipated in that respect.
Whilst a picture is worth a thousand words, the 265 words that fronts these photographs sets the context and tone quite brilliantly – the only thing missing is a photograph of Micks Cafe in Fleet St.
Wow, these daily blogs open our eyes most times to a side of London many may have long forgotten briefly now looked back on with misty eyes and minds.
I second what George says. They are quite excellent.
Lew was also a good cop. A rarity!