The first appeal for objects was put out by Chief Superintendent Arthur Rowlerson of E Division in 1949 to mark the bicentenary of the Metropolitan Police's forerunners the Bow Street Runners.

[7] The first curator Audrey Sams was an existing member of the Met's civil staff at Bow Street who had previously been a police officer.

[8] No new display space was found until July 2009, when a new gallery space and research room opened in an annexe to Empress State Building, an MPS office building in west London, headed by curator Maggie Bird and renamed the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre.

[6][10] With the planned change of use of Empress State Building to a counter-terrorism hub,[11] the gallery space at West Brompton closed in early 2020.

The collection then moved to Marlowe House in Sidcup, where a new research room opened in October 2022 and a new gallery in spring 2023.