Police box

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Modern police box located outside Earl's Court tube station in London, which is "bristling with new technology".
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Modern police box located outside Earl's Court tube station in London, which is "bristling with new technology".

A police box is a telephone kiosk or callbox for use by members of the police. 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. 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. An electric light on top of the box would flash to alert a beat officer that he was requested to contact the station. Members of the public could also use the phone (which was on the exterior) to contact a police station in an emergency.

19th century American police call box.
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19th century American police call box.

British police boxes were usually blue. In addition to a telephone they contained essential equipment such as an incident book and a first aid kit. The British Broadcasting Corporation holds a trademark [1] to the British design of the police box as used in the science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the programme, the main character's time machine (the TARDIS) is in the shape of a 1950s-era British police box.[2]

In Britain, police call boxes first began appearing in the 1880s. These were direct line telephones placed on a post which could often be accessed by a key or breaking a glass. These call boxes were adopted and widely used in the United States (see picture, left).

The first "modern" British police boxes in the form of kiosks or booths (see picture, right) were introduced in the mid-1920s and were in wide use by the mid-1930s. 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.

The earliest boxes were made of wood, and later ones of concrete, which officers complained were extremely cold. They played an important part in police work until the mid-1960s, 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 and the mobile phone, 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.

This Edinburgh police box now serves as a coffee shop.
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This Edinburgh police box now serves as a coffee shop.
Police Call Box (non-working) still to be seen at St Martins Le Grand London
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Police Call Box (non-working) still to be seen at St Martins Le Grand London

In 1994, the Strathclyde Police decided to scrap the remaining police boxes on the streets of Glasgow. However, due to the intervention of a private preservation trust, together with the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, the police box remains today a part of Glasgow's architectural heritage. At least four remain — on Great Western Rd (at the corner of Byres Rd); Buchanan St; one painted red on Wilson St; 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. However, at present, only the Great Western Road and Buchanan St boxes have been transformed to dispense beverages, and restrictions are enforced by the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and the Doctor Who Society to prevent the exterior of the boxes from being modified beyond the trademarked design.

In 1997, a replica 1950s-era police box was erected outside the Earl's Court tube station in London, equipped with CCTV cameras and a telephone to contact police. 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.

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.


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