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Police box

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This article is about British police boxes. For Japanese police boxes, see Koban (police box).

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A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1997 and based on the 1929 Mackenzie Trench design.

A police box was, in 20th century Britain, a special type of telephone kiosk or callbox for use by members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police. However unlike ordinary kiosks or callboxes of the era, in a police box the telephone was mounted on the outside, and the interior of the box was effectively a miniature police station for use by police officers.

Police boxes pre-date the era of modern telecommunications; today, every police officer (in technologically developed countries) is likely to carry a two-way radio and/or a mobile phone.[1]

The typical police box contained a telephone linked directly to the local police station allowing officers on the beat to keep in contact with the station, reporting anything unusual, requesting help if necessary or even to detain prisoners until a vehicle could be sent to transport them to the station or to jail. This was in the day when most police officers walked a beat or rode a bicycle rather than using a police car. A light on top of the box would flash to alert a beat officer that he was requested to contact the station.[1] Members of the public could also use the phone (which was on the exterior) to contact a police station in an emergency.[1]

British police boxes were usually blue, except in Scotland, where they were often red.[2] In addition to a telephone they contained essential equipment such as an incident book and a first aid kit.[3] Today the image of the blue police box is a trademark of the BBC as it is widely associated with the science fiction television programme Doctor Who, in which the protagonist's time machine, the TARDIS, is in the shape of a police box.[4]

19th century American police call box.

History

An 1894 advertisement for the "Glasgow Style Police Signal Box System", sold by the National Telephone Company.
This Edinburgh police box now serves as a coffee shop.
A police box on the seafront at Scarborough.
An old police box (no telephone) in Covent Garden, London

The first police telephone was installed in Albany, New York in 1877, one year after Alexander Graham Bell invented the device.[5] Call boxes for use by both police and members of the public were first installed in Washington, D.C. in 1883; Chicago and Detroit installed police call boxes in 1884, and in 1885 Boston followed suit.[5] These were direct line telephones placed on a post which could often be accessed by a key or breaking a glass. 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: there were eleven signals, including "Police Wagon Required", "Thieves", "Forgers", "Murder", "Accident", "Fire" and "Drunkard".[6]

The first public police telephones in Britain were introduced in Glasgow in 1891.[7] These tall, hexagonal cast-iron boxes were painted red and had large gas lanterns fixed to the roof, and a mechanism which enabled the central police station to light the lantern as a signal to policemen in the vicinity to call the station for instructions.[7]

Rectangular, wooden police boxes were introduced in Sunderland in 1923, and Newcastle in 1925.[8] The Metropolitan Police introduced police boxes throughout London between 1928 and 1937;[9]; the design that later became most well-known was created for the Met by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench in 1929.[10] The earliest boxes were made of wood, and later ones of concrete; officers complained that the concrete boxes were extremely cold. The interiors of these boxes normally contained, for the use of officers: a stool, a table, brushes and dusters, a fire extinguisher and a small electric heater.[9] Like the 19th century Glaswegian boxes, the London police boxes contained a light at the top, which would flash as a signal to police officers on the beat that they should contact the station, but the light was now electric.[9]

By 1953, there were 685 police boxes on the streets of London.[11] Police boxes played an important part in police work until 1969-1970, when they were phased out following the introduction of personal radios. As the main function of this box was superseded by the rise of portable telecommunications like the walkie-talkie, there are very few police boxes left in Britain today. Some of those remaining, like in Edinburgh, have been converted into high street coffee bars, though the City has many dozens remaining untouched, most in various states of disrepair.[12] One police box situated in the Leicestershire town of Newtown Linford is still used by the local police beat team today.[13][14]

In 1994, the Strathclyde Police decided to scrap the remaining police boxes on the streets of Glasgow.[15] However, due to the intervention of the Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust, together with the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, the police box remains today a part of Glasgow's architectural heritage.[15] At least four remain — on Great Western Road (at the corner of Byres Road); Buchanan Street; one painted red on Wilson Street; and one near the corner of Cathedral Square. There is also a red police box preserved in the Glasgow Museum of Transport. The police boxes in Glasgow on Great Western Road, Cathedral Square and Buchanan St are currently under licence to a Glasgow-based coffee outlet.[12] However, at present, only the Great Western Road and Buchanan St boxes have been transformed to dispense beverages, and restrictions are enforced by the Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust to prevent the exterior of the boxes from being modified beyond the trademarked design. The Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust now manage 11 of the UK's last "Gilbert Mackenzie Trench" Police Signal Boxes on behalf of a private collector. Another blue police box of this style is preserved at the National Tramway Museum, Crich, Derbyshire.

In 1997, a police box based on the Mackenzie Trench design was erected outside the Earl's Court tube station in London, equipped with CCTV cameras and a telephone to contact police.[9] 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 dried up. In March 2005, the Metropolitan Police resumed funding the refurbishment and maintenance of the box (which is something of a tourist attraction due to the Doctor Who association, see below).

Glasgow introduced a new design "police box" in 2005. The new police boxes are not booths but computerised kiosks, which connect the caller to a police CCTV control room operator. They stand at ten feet in height with a chrome finish and act as a 24-hour information point, with three screens providing information on crime prevention, police force recruitment and even tourist information.[16]

Liverpool has something similar, 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.

Doctor Who

1980s Fibreglass TARDIS prop seen at BBC Television Centre.
Main article: TARDIS

In 1963, the science-fiction television series Doctor Who was first shown by the BBC. A key feature of this programme is the TARDIS, a time machine disguised as a Mackenzie Trench-style police box. Doctor Who originally aired from 1963 to 1989; since police boxes were phased out in the 1970s, over time the image of the blue police box became associated as much with Doctor Who as with the police. In 1996, the BBC applied for a trademark to use the blue police box design in merchandising associated with Doctor Who.[17] In 1998, the Metropolitan Police filed an objection to the trademark claim, maintaining that they owned the rights to the police box image. In 2002 the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC, pointing out that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police — or any other police force — had ever registered the image as a trademark.[18][4][19] In addition, the BBC had been selling merchandise based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police.[18] The series was revived in 2005 and the police box continues to feature prominently in almost every episode.

See also

References

Police Telephone Post (non-working) still to be seen at St. Martin's Le Grand, London
  1. ^ a b c Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 2. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 13. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 14. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b "BBC wins police Tardis case". BBC News. 2002-10-23. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 3. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 4. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 5. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Darrington, Peter. "Police Box History". Police Box Website. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  9. ^ a b c d "History of the Metropolitan Police Services - Police Boxes". Metropolitan Police website. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  10. ^ Burton, Immanuel. "History of the Police Box". www.policeboxes.com. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  11. ^ Stewart, Robert W. (1994). "The Police Signal Box: A 100 Year History" (PDF). University of Strathclyde. p. 8. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ a b McPherson, Ian (2004). "The Police Box Page". Kiosk Korner. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
  13. ^ "Newtown Linford". Leicestershire Parish Councils website. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  14. ^ "Police Box, Bradgate Country Park, Newtown Linford, Leicestershire". Geograph. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  15. ^ a b "The Police Boxes". Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust website. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
  16. ^ "Police box offering hi-tech help". BBC News. 2005-08-24. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Case details for Trade Mark 2104259". UK Patent Office. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  18. ^ a b Knight, Mike. "IN THE MATTER OF Application No. 2104259 by The British Broadcasting Corporation to register a series of three marks in Classes 9, 16, 25 and 41 AND IN THE MATTER OF Opposition thereto under No. 48452 by The Metropolitan Police Authority" (PDF). UK Patent Office. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  19. ^ Winter, Paul (2002-10-24). "Time and Registered Documentation in Space". Doctor Who Appreciation Society. Archived from the original on 2004-10-21. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Police boxes.
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