The Jury's in for the Orange Set

I've previously blogged about Do Not Pass Go, a wonderful London travel book that explores the city through the Monopoly board. Packed with trivia, one such tidbit I gleaned from the book concerns the relationship of the streets in the orange set, viz Bow Street, Vine Street, and (Great) Marlborough Street. All of these streets are in the West End (as is most of the Monopoly Board), and all were once home to magistrates courts. I lived next door to the courts, for nine months, in the council estate on Martlett Court.

The last of those courts to remain open is that on Bow Street, in the building that once housed a police station, which in turn once housed the Bow Street Runners, the world's first non-military police force. Bow Street also turn up in Hitchcock's Frenzy. The courts finally closed to the public today, after 271 years of service. I visited the courts in late 2005, and blogged about the experience... but there is also plenty more to read in this wonderful BBC article.