Plan considered for first complete London police museum

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Evidence from Jack the Ripper’s murders, death masks, the first truncheons and vintage police cars could be brought together for the first time under plans to create a Metropolitan Police exhibition.

With New Scotland Yard being sold and its private collection from crime scenes needing a new home, the Mayor of London is championing the idea of a new Met Police museum.

At the moment, artefacts from the Met’s 184-year history are in a warehouse, and small, scattered pockets across London largely closed to the public or only viewable by appointment.

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Statue repair report for Jo Good’s show on BBC London 94.9

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The Duke of Cambridge's horse

“Whitehall partially blocked: a man is naked atop the equestrian statue”. It has to be one of the strangest tweets the BBC London 94.9 travel team has ever put out. Last year a Ukrainian man was up there for three hours. Jo McDermott returned with a fully clothed man from English Heritage.

Listen: NAKED STATUE DAMAGE REPAIR

Broadcast on 31 July, 2013

Latest BBC feature: Duke of Cambridge statue fixed after naked man’s damage

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Dan Motrescu sits on top of the statue naked

The Duke of Cambridge’s steed stands foundering with a set of wooden planks at its knees.

Prince George should be holding a Field Marshall’s baton but it was snapped off by a naked man last November.

While his sword is bolted back into his left hand he wears the same irrepressible expression he had when Dan Motrescu sat on his head.

Soon repairs will put this chapter of the bronze commander’s 107-year history behind him.

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Latest BBC feature: Ancestors traced within clicks after years of searching

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The names of 205,000 people once restricted to overgrown graveyards and dusty archives have been liberated for the world to see.

Janet Ellis at her family's grave

Brompton Cemetery in West Brompton, west London, is the first of the “Magnificent Seven” London cemeteries constructed during the 1830s and 1840s to put all its burial registers online.

It means Janet Ellis has found a family grave she did not know was there.

She also discovered a 13-month-old relative, for whom no records existed.

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Latest authored BBC story: Margaret Thatcher art posters banned from Tube

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Portrait by Ben Moore

Posters of Margaret Thatcher due to be shown at Westminster Tube station have been banned by advertising bosses.

Six portraits of the former prime minister, including a depiction of her as Queen Victoria, were due to run from this week.

CBS Outdoor, which sells advertising space across the London Underground, said running them would break Transport for London (TfL) guidelines.

Former Culture Secretary David Mellor said it was a “stupid situation”.

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Latest BBC feature: Musicians audition for Tube busking licences

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Ben Hudson I told Ben Hudson ‘You look like a young Michael Hutchence’. He said ‘Who’s he?’.

The sound of No Woman, No Cry emanates from a disused platform at Charing Cross Underground station as weekend engineering works are announced and a man plays scales on a bamboo flute.

It’s the last audition day for performers hoping to gain the busking licences for the Tube which were first made available 10 years ago.

Over three weeks, 250 people have played for a panel of three – sometimes including record company professionals – hoping to join the 350 performers who try to entertain commuters. There are up to 100 licences available.

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Latest BBC feature: Tottenham MP wants security review in face of extremism

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For the second time this season Tottenham Hotspur fans have been attacked abroad in what appears to be a racially-motivated incident.

Three Spurs supporters received minor injuries in a bar in the French city of Lyon on the eve of their side’s Europa League tie.

In November, one fan was seriously injured and several were hurt in a clash ahead of a Lazio game in Rome.

Questions are now being asked about the security around the north London club, which has a historic Jewish association.

‘Deeply worrying’

Up to 50 masked people attacked the Smoking Dog Pub at about 22:00 CET on Wednesday, smashing windows and throwing objects. Fans were hurt by flying glass.

Former Met officer Chris Hobbs said any club could have been targeted

Eyewitnesses said the attackers entered the pub doing Nazi salutes.

David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, has now called for a careful review of security around Spurs supporters travelling abroad for games.

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