Before the formation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829, policing duties were undertaken by a local body known as the watch that was organised by the parish vestry.  Until the end of the 17th century, the watch consisted of householders within the parish who patrolled the streets on rotation from about 9pm to sunrise, examining suspicious characters they encountered and apprehending felons suspected of burglary and crimes of violence. This was not without danger to members of the watch and increasingly householders paid deputies to take their place, the first steps towards a professional police force.  The watch was supervised by a constable.  Originally a member of the local parish this post was also increasingly undertaken by someone hired for the role.  Further information regarding the history of the policing of London can be found here.

Members of the watch reported for duty at the parish watch-house, an embryonic police station of sorts, where apprehended criminals were kept for the night before being brought before the magistrate in the morning.  Usually built adjacent to the parish church burial ground, the watch-house also provided a means of guarding graves from body-snatchers.  Known as the Resurrection Men, body-snatchers dug up the corpses of the recently  buried to sell to the local hospitals of St Thomas’s and Guy’s for the purpose of teaching anatomy. Legally the medical profession were only allowed to use the bodies of those who had been executed but as the death sentence was carried out less frequently towards the end of the 18th century, there was a shortage of cadavers.   The passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832 ended this gruesome practice.