Police box
A police box is a public
The typical British police box contained a telephone linked directly to the local police station, allowing
United Kingdom
The first public police telephones in Britain appeared in Glasgow in 1891. These tall, hexagonal, cast-iron boxes were painted red and had large gas lanterns fixed to the roof, as well as a mechanism which enabled the central police station to light the lanterns as signals to police officers in the vicinity to call the station for instructions. As with Chicago's boxes, the original intent was that trusted members of the public would be allowed access to the telephone in case of emergency using a special key that was registered to them, which would remain trapped in the lock until released by a master key carried by a policeman.[3]: 5 A newer, rectangular type of cast-iron police box was introduced in Glasgow in 1912, but with the signal light now powered by electricity rather than gas, and access to the telephone now restricted solely to the police.[3]
Rectangular, wooden, garden shed style police boxes were introduced in
The Metropolitan Police (Met) introduced police boxes throughout London between 1928 and 1937,[10] and the design that later became the most well-known was created by the Met's own surveyor and architect, Gilbert Mackenzie Trench, in 1929.[11][12] Between 1929 and 1938 around 1,000 examples of the Mackenzie Trench police box were installed. They measured 9 ft 4 in (2.84 m) tall, and 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) wide.[9]
History
Initially, two competing prototype designs were installed on the newly built Becontree Estate in December 1928, with the winning builder being contracted to erect 43 boxes made of wood with concrete roofs in the final Trench pattern as part of experimental installations in the Richmond and Wood Green sub-divisions, which were completed in December 1929 and January 1930 respectively.[8] Their success resulted in the widespread adoption of the system throughout Greater London over the next eight years using newer models of the Mackenzie Trench design now made completely of concrete for increased durability, save the doors, which were still made of teak.[8] Constables complained that the concrete boxes were extremely cold and damp compared to their wooden predecessors, so provisions were made for more powerful heaters.[8] For use by officers, the interiors of the boxes normally contained a stool, a table with drawer, a brush and duster, a fire extinguisher, a first aid kit, and a small electric heater.[10] Like the 19th and early 20th century Glaswegian boxes, the London police boxes had a light at the top of each box, which would flash as a signal to police officers indicating that they should contact the station.[10]
By 1953, there were 685 police boxes on the streets of Greater London,[13] with an additional 72 smaller police posts, also designed by Trench, used in the inner divisions where there was no space for the larger kiosks.[8] Between 1923 and 1960 the police box and/or post system had been adopted by most of the provincial police forces throughout Great Britain.[8] The design and construction of the police boxes used in each system were at the discretion of each individual force, and consequently varied a great deal from location to location, but the police pillars/posts were usually one of three successive models provided by the General Post Office (GPO).[8]
Police boxes continued to play an important role in police work until the late 1960s to early 1970s, when they were phased out following the introduction of personal radios. As the main functions of the boxes were superseded by the rise of portable telecommunications devices like the walkie-talkie and the near universal access by the public to telephones and the 999 emergency number, very few police boxes remain in Britain today. Some have been converted into High Street coffee bars. These are common in Edinburgh, though the city also has dozens that remain untouched — most in various states of disrepair. Edinburgh's boxes are relatively large, and are of a rectangular plan, with a design by Ebenezer James MacRae, who was inspired by the city's abundance of neoclassical architecture.[14] At their peak there were 86 scattered around the city. In 2012, Lothian and Borders Police sold a further 22, leaving them owning 20.[15]
Beginning in 1933, a slightly simplified version of the Met's police box design was also used by the City of Glasgow Police when its old cast-iron police boxes were replaced by an expanded Crawley type of integrated police box system. This was done as part of the restructuring of the force brought about by Percy Sillitoe after he was appointed Chief Constable at the end of 1931. Like the cast-iron boxes before them, the new concrete boxes continued to be painted red until the popularity of Doctor Who prompted a change to blue in the late 1960s.[3]
In 1994,
The Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust now manages 11 of the UK's last Gilbert Mackenzie Trench police boxes on behalf of a private collector. Another blue police box of this style is preserved at the
In the
On Thursday 18 April 1996,[20] a new police box based on the Mackenzie Trench design was unveiled outside the Earl's Court tube station in London, equipped with CCTV cameras and a telephone to contact police.[10] The telephone ceased to function in April 2000 when London's telephone numbers were changed, but the box remained, despite the fact that funding for its upkeep and maintenance had long since been exhausted. In March 2005, the Metropolitan Police resumed funding the refurbishment and maintenance of the box.
Glasgow introduced a new design of police boxes in 2005. The new boxes are not booths but rather computerized kiosks that connect the caller to a police CCTV control room operator. They stand 10 feet in height with a chrome finish and act as 24-hour information points, with three screens providing information on crime prevention, police force recruitment and tourist information.[21]
Liverpool has structures similar to police boxes, known as police Help Points, which are essentially an intercom box with a push button mounted below a CCTV camera on a post with a direct line to the police.
Boscombe in Bournemouth opened its own old-style police box in April 2014 in a bid to tackle crime in the area.[22] The box contains a yellow phone for when it is not staffed by police, along with security cameras and a defibrillator.
City of London launched in February 2021 a competition to bring a back a new and updated police box to its streets.[23] Whether if these new boxes will have any similarity to the old London police boxes remains to be seen.
In Doctor Who
The
Although the dimensions and colour of the TARDIS used in the series have changed many times, none of the BBC props has been a faithful replica of the original MacKenzie Trench model. This has been explained within the context of the show that chameleon circuits tend to display a bit of "drift" if left in the same setting for too long, and in any case the circuit of the Doctor's TARDIS is malfunctioning.[27] This was acknowledged in the episode "Twice Upon a Time" which had the Twelfth Doctor meet the First Doctor, and had the original incarnation and Bill Potts point out the visible differences between the modern and original TARDISes.[28][29]
United States
The first police telephone was installed in Albany, New York in 1877, one year after Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. Call boxes for use by both police and trusted members of the public were first installed in Chicago in 1880, initially housed in kiosks to protect the inner signal boxes from the weather and to limit access to them so as to discourage false alarms.[30] In 1883, Washington, D.C. installed its own system; Detroit installed police call boxes in 1884, and in 1885, Boston followed suit.[3]: 3 These were direct line telephones usually placed inside a metal box on a post which could often be accessed by a key or breaking a glass panel. In Chicago, the telephones were restricted to police use, but the boxes also contained a dial mechanism which members of the public could use to signal different types of alarms via telegraph: there were 11 signals, including "Police Wagon Required", "Thieves", "Forgers", "Murder", "Accident", "Fire" and "Drunkard".[3]: 4
Gallery
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A modern police box in Baltimore, Maryland; based on the British concept
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This police box in Edinburgh now serves as a coffee shop.
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This police box in Edinburgh now serves as an art gallery.
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An Edinburgh police box with graffiti from the 2014 Scottish independence referendum
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A police box on the seafront at Scarborough
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An old police box (no telephone) in Covent Garden, London
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A City of London Police post on Eastcheap, 1981
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Police telephone post (not functional) atMet' dark blue. 'City' boxes were painted in a light blue.
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A Mackenzie Trench design police box in Glasgow
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A 1929 police box that stands on Surrey Street, outside Sheffield Town Hall. It is still used as a post for city ambassadors, providing tourist information.
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A Glasgow police box (red variation of a Mackenzie Trench) near the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall serving as a hemp dispensary
See also
- Kōban
- Somerton TARDIS
- Red telephone box
- Sentry box
- Fire alarm call box
- Royal Mile police box
- Telephones portal
References
- ^ a b c "Huddersfield's Tardis police box is on the move!". Yorkshire Examiner. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
The blue boxes were once a common sight across the country
- ^ Immanuel Burton. "A Brief History of the Police Box". Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Stewart, The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History.
- ^ "Doctor Who: Thirteen TARDIS-like police boxes left standing in the UK and where to find them". Plymouth Herald. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
when talking about British icons which are nearing extinction there isn't anything quite as rare or as famous as the blue police box
- ^ a b "BBC wins police Tardis case". BBC News. 23 October 2002. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ Darrington, Peter. "Police Box History". Police Box Website. Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ "Decentralization and the Police Box System", by Frederick James Crawley; Police Journal, Vol. 1 (1928).
- ^ ISBN 978-1858584652
- ^ a b "The story of the Police Box". Telephone Box.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Police Boxes". History of the Metropolitan Police Services. UK: Metropolitan Police. Archived from the original on 8 November 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ Burton, Immanuel. "History". Police Boxes. UK. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ "A History of the Real Police Box". The Mind Robber. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
- ^ Stewart: 8.
- ^ a b McPherson, Ian (2004). "The Police Box Page". Kiosk Korner. Archived from the original on 22 January 2007. Retrieved 23 January 2007.
- ^ "Police box sale could give blues to buyers". Retrieved 9 March 2013.
- ^ a b "The Police Boxes". Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust website. Archived from the original on 30 April 2001. Retrieved 23 January 2007.
- ^ "Kent Police Museum - Police Box". Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010. Kent Police Museum
- ^ Stuff, Good. "Listed Buildings in England". www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk.
- ^ "Law & Order route". www.london-footprints.co.uk.
- BBC h2g2. 23 November 2006. Archived from the originalon 24 January 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
- ^ "Police box offering hi-tech help". BBC News. 24 August 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ Frampton, Will (18 April 2014). "Police box Tardis pulls the crowds at Boscombe". Bournemouth Daily Echo. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
- ^ Evans, Martin (1 February 2021). "Police Boxes for the digital age set to return our streets". The Telegraph – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- UK Patent Office. Archived from the originalon 29 June 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ UK Patent Office. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ Winter, Paul (24 October 2002). "Time and Registered Documentation in Space". Doctor Who Appreciation Society. Archived from the original on 21 October 2004. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ "Doctor Who A History of the TARDIS Police Box Prop and its Modifications". Retrieved 17 February 2010.
- ^ Dillon-Trenchard, Peter (25 December 2017). "Doctor Who: geeky spots & references in Twice Upon A Time". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ Martin, Daniel (25 December 2017). "Doctor Who Christmas special 2017: Twice Upon a Time". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "History of the Chicago Police", John Joseph Flinn & John Elbert Wilkie (1887).
- ^ "Why S.F. still counts on street fire alarm boxes". 7 February 2012.
- ^ "Calls to preserve historic former police box hidden on the edge of Dewsbury". Dewsbury Reporter. 28 September 2021.
- Stewart, Robert W. (June 1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2005.
- The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). ISBN 978-1858584652
- From Rattle to Radio, John Bunker (November 1988). ISBN 978-0947731281
External links
- "Police box", History, Metropolitan Police, archived from the original on 8 November 2008, retrieved 30 August 2005.
- The Police Public Call Box on YouTube
- A feature on Glasgow's police boxes on YouTube
- The TARDIS Library, archived from the original on 18 April 2017, retrieved 27 September 2004 — a guide to the various police box props used in Doctor Who over the years, and their relationship to real police boxes.
- McPherson, Ian, "The Police Box page", Kiosk Korner, archived from the original on 22 January 2007.
- "The Great Edinburgh TARDIS Quest", Flickr, Yahoo!, 5 August 2005 — set devoted to tracking down remaining Edinburgh police boxes.
- Steven, Michael ‘Mike’, "Police Box Typology", Carbon Made — fine art policebox photographic typology.
- "Earliest Glasgow police box discovered", Dr Who (news), UK: The BBC, 1 September 2005, archived from the original on 23 December 2006
- Police Boxes — catalogue of police box models.
- National Tramway Museum, Crich, Derbyshire, ENG, UK
- Police Public Call Box. A guide to see real life Police Boxes around the UK
- The Police Box Map
- Police Box locations