Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

Holloway Goods Yard: 1910 - Reproduced With permission from National Library of Scotland Several times a week I travel by train into King’s Cross Station. In doing so I pass by the site of the former Holloway Goods Yard. Nothing is left of this sprawling set of railway sidings that ran north from the Caledonian Road area up to Finsbury Park Station, including the area now occupied by a large football stadium. I recall the last remains of this complex was a set of sidings known as Clarence Yard (now occupied by houses and flats). Occasionally we would be called there to reports of theft or criminal damage, although it was largely derelict. In the early 1990s when I was working on the first draft of the British Transport Police Roll of Honour for the BTP History Society (the forerunner of the modern BTP History Group) I became aware that an officer had been killed in an accident at Holloway Goods, probably near Finsbury Park Station. At the time all research was conducted manually w...

A Modern View: Looking Towards the Scene of the Accident: Photo Chris West      I often lament that that we fail to preserve the present for the future.   If only a few officers (and former officers) who were involved in the major incidents touching the railways over the last 40 years were to set down what they saw and what they did we would be handing on a wonderful gift to future historians.   In this regard I was disappointed that suggestions for a project to capture the experience of BTP officers (and staff) during the pandemic did not get off the ground.   The history of policing the railways and docks of the UK is a fragile thing.   If it is not preserved it will be suffocated by the histories of bigger organisations. With this at the back of mind I have been looking at some of the early railway accidents.   The reports of HM Railway Inspectorate provide an invaluable source.   The very first report for the Board of Trade by an Inspec...