Its grey rotating sign instantly recognisable from news bulletins, New Scotland Yard (almost always referred to as Scotland Yard), is the headquarters for the Metropolitan Police Force which covers all 32 boroughs of Greater London.
It’s named after the public entrance for the original headquarters which was on Great Scotland Yard. Although the headquarters building has moved several times and is now on Victoria Embankment (2016), the name has been retained, hence ‘New Scotland Yard’. ‘Scotland Yard’ as a phrase is also commonly used to describe the police force as a whole and especially police detectives.

The Metropolitan Police force, the first organised police force in the world, was established in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, which led to the nicknames ‘Peelers’ and ‘Bobbies’. The latter term still widely used today.
Early uniforms were blue (rather than red which was a military colour) and officers would have only a wooden truncheon and a rattle. Until 1864 they also wore top hats!
There were strict entry conditions, you had to be under 35 and at least 5 ft 10 (1.83m) (a height requirement for the Metropolitan Police was only dropped in 1990)
There is a Crime museum in the basement of New Scotland Yard, alas it is not open to the public and is for serving police officers only. It contains some gruesome artefacts including hangman’s nooses, death masks and letters allegedly written by Jack Ripper (source central here everyone!) Oh, and its name used to be The Black Library (very Fittes like!)
Bow Street Police Station (Real Life Police Museum)
“Mr Hugo Blake, 22, a well-known gambler and society figure, is currently being held at Bow Street Police Station. He has not yet been formally charged.“

Another reference to the police in Lockwood and Co is contained within the newspaper article Lucy finds at the National Newspaper Archives in The Screaming Skull. Bow Street Police station, opened in 1881. It was a working police station and court (the police station closed in 1992 and the court in 2006).
This establishment was known for the ‘Bow Street Runners’ founded by magistrate Henry Fielding in the 18th Century, they were a group of men who were legal enforcers for the court and often thought of as London’s first police force, although without the powers of the force set up by Sir Robert Peel.
Whilst in operation many famous (and infamous) people were temporary Bow Street Residents, including Oscar Wilde and James Earl Ray (who assassinated Martin Luther King).
If you are interested in police, crime and punishment you are in luck as the old police station has reopened as The Bow Street Police Museum (See link on the right).