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Entries / Booth-guards

Booth-guards


Categories / City Administration/Police, Prisons

BOOTH-GUARDS, lowest ranks of city police looking after " decency" and cleanliness of streets entrusted to them at the end of the 18th - mid 19th centuries. They were subordinated to the non-commissioned officer of the block. They were placed in booths (hence the name) painted in black and white stripes. The booth was supplied with warm wooden premises used as a place of rest for booth-guards and as a place for keeping the detained citizens. In the 18th century, booths were installed at crossroads; from the beginning of the 19th century the distance between them was 150 steps. Usually three booth-guards were on duty in the booth: the first one keeping watch, the second one, assisting him (both were armed with halberds), and the third one at rest. The duty lasted for 24 hours. At night booth-guards did "the night watch" (making rounds), watching over the street lamps. In the 1860s, a badge was added to the uniform of booth-guards. By the end of the 19th century, booth-guards were replaced with city guards. At the beginning of the 20th century the English embankment still had the memorial booth of a city guard which was once visited by Emperor Nicholas I.

Reference: Высоцкий И. П. Санкт-Петербургская столичная полиция и градоначальство, 1703-1903: Крат. ист. очерк. СПб., 1903. С. 119-121; Северцев (Полилов) Г. Т. С.-Петербург в начале XIX века // Ист. вестн. 1903. Т. 92, май. С. 625-626.

Y. N. Kruzhnov.

Addresses
Angliiskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city

Bibliographies
Высоцкий И. П. Санкт-Петербургская столичная полиция и градоначальство, 1703-1903: Крат. ист. очерк. СПб., 1903
Северцев (Полилов) Г. Т. С.-Петербург в начале XIX века // Ист. вестн., 1903

The subject Index
City Guards


Block Supervisors

BLOCK SUPERVISORS, ranks of executive police who headed police blocks in 1782–1867; they were appointed by the Board of Decency and were subordinated to private police officers

City Guards

CITY GUARDS, the name of the lowest ranks of police holding duty in the streets; the name was used from the first quarter of the 19th century along with the name of booth-guards. After the division of St

Police

POLICE was created in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 18th century; it was engaged in all the spheres of city life: construction, fire safety, city finances, public institutions, concert and theatre activities, etc