Georgian history | City of Vice

'Bow Street Runner' is set in London's Covent Garden in the 1750s. With crime and vice running at very high levels, and before the organised police force existed in England, local magistrates formed the Bow Street Runners and began to impose law and order.

Each episode of the game will lead the player to explore different crime scenes, collecting evidence, solving puzzles, interviewing characters and presenting the case to the magistrate for judgement. Will Fielding's fledgling police force gain the public's trust through successful convictions of hardened criminals? Only if the player, as Fielding's key Runner, can prove who did it…

'Bow Street Runner' is designed to be historically accurate and therefore the game's content and its setting may not be suitable for younger players.

This game is designed to provide an historically accurate – and therefore grim, violent and salacious – depiction of life on the streets of Covent Garden at the time before there was any organised police force. It will demonstrate to the player the need for a properly resourced police force. Players will see the kind of lives led by the inhabitants of London at that time and be exposed to sexual practices, commercial activities and raw criminal acts typical and commonplace for that time. Necessarily, the attitudes and approaches expressed by some of the characters in the game will not reflect current accepted thought and practice, but the intention is to allow the player to be educated about the kind of environment and culture that thrived in Covent Garden in the late 18th Century. Some of the themes and scenes will not be suitable for very young players.