Justice and Police Museum
Located opposite the eastern end of Circular Quay the Justice and Police Museum is very easy to get to. Outside there are silhouettes of criminals, which look fantastic, and a great photo opportunity. Unfortunately the museum is only open on weekends, so if you want to visit, keep this in mind. The building consists of the old water police office and courtroom, the old police watch house, holding cells and their old courtroom.
Criminal Silhouettes
The museum would be worth visiting just for the buildings themselves as the courtroom was designed by James Barnet. The courtroom still has the prisoners’ dock present and the watch house has the front desk and interrogation dock present.
Prisoners’ Dock Police Desk
The old holding cells have displays of old mug shots showing how they evolved with time. Some notorious criminals have their crimes and mugshots on the walls (the criminals in the 20’s got to pose how they wanted ……. just a small bit of knowledge learnt on the day) along with a display of weaponry, both police and criminal.
Old Mug Shots 
Weapons on Display
The volunteers present were fantastic and made our visit memorable. They gave us a better insight into the operation of the building, took fingerprints and explained the operation of the station and treatment of the criminals.
A great place to visit, see some mug shots, read some criminal history, see some cells and courtrooms all in an hour. This is a little museum, but very well set up and interesting! Would definitely visit her again.
To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.
