A police box is a public telephone kiosk or callbox for the use of members of the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

, or for members of the public to contact the police. It was used in some countries, most widely in the United Kingdom throughout the 20th century from the early 1920s. Unlike an ordinary callbox, its telephone was located behind a hinged door so it could be used from the outside by anyone, and the interior of the box was, in effect, a miniature

police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...

for use by police officers to read and fill in reports, take meal breaks and temporarily hold detainees until the arrival of transport. The typical British police box contained a telephone linked directly to the local police station, allowing

patrol A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, or security personnel, that are assigned to monitor or secure a specific geographic area. Etymology The word "patrol" is derived from the Frenc ...

ling officers to keep in contact with the station, reporting anything unusual or requesting help if necessary. A light on top of the box would flash to alert an officer that they were requested to contact the station.. Police boxes were usually blue, with the most notable exception being

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, where they were red until the late 1960s. In addition to a telephone, they contained equipment such as an incident book, a

fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

and a

first aid kit A first aid kit or medical kit is a collection of supplies and equipment used to give First aid, immediate medical treatment, primarily to treat injuries and other mild or moderate medical conditions. There is a wide variation in the contents o ...

. Labelled a "British icon" by the '' Plymouth Herald'', the blue Metropolitan Police boxes, designed by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench in 1929, became Britain's most recognisable police boxes. The blue police box is associated with the science fiction television programme ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', in which The Doctor's time machine, a

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...

, is disguised as a British police box.

United Kingdom

The first public police telephones in Britain appeared in Glasgow in 1891. These tall, hexagonal,

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

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. 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. Rectangular, wooden, garden shed style police boxes were introduced in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

in 1923 by Chief Constable Frederick J. Crawley, and then in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

in 1925 when he took over as Chief Constable there. Crawley was arguably the first proponent (at least in Britain) of the concept of the police box as a miniature police station rather than just a communications point, including unrestricted access to the telephone by the general public for contacting police, ambulance, and fire services."Decentralization and the Police Box System", by Frederick James Crawley; Police Journal, Vol. 1 (1928). His well-publicised success with these boxes, and the revised policing methods they allowed, soon led to the adoption of similar police box systems in many of the larger cities in the north of England, including

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. The Metropolitan Police (Met) introduced police boxes throughout London between 1928 and 1937, 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. Between 1929 and 1938 around 1,000 examples of the Mackenzie Trench police box were installed. They measured tall, and wide.

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."The Rise and Fall of the Police Box", John Bunker (October 2011). 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. Constables complained that the concrete boxes were extremely cold and damp compared to their wooden predecessors, so provisions were made for more powerful heaters. 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. 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. By 1953, there were 685 police boxes on the streets of Greater London, 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. Between 1923 and 1960 the police box and/or post system had been adopted by most of the provincial police forces throughout Great Britain. 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 The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...

(GPO). 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 A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, HT, or handheld radio, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer A ...

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 High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

coffee bars. These are common in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. 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 Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of t ...

. At their peak there were 86 scattered around the city. In 2012, Lothian and Borders Police sold a further 22, leaving them owning 20. Red Police Box - geograph

Beginning in 1933, a slightly simplified version of the Met's police box design was also used by the

City of Glasgow Police The City of Glasgow Police or Glasgow City Police was the police organisation covering the city and royal burgh of Glasgow, from 1800 to 1893, and the county of city of Glasgow, from 1893 to 1975. In the 17th century, Scottish cities used to ...

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. In 1994, Strathclyde Police decided to scrap the remaining Glasgow police boxes. However, owing to the intervention of the Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust and the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, some police boxes were retained and remain today as part of Glasgow's architectural heritage. At least five remain—on Great Western Road (at the junction with Queen Margaret Drive and Byres Road);

Buchanan Street Buchanan Street is one of the high street, main shopping thoroughfares in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. It forms the central stretch of Glasgow's famous shopping district with a generally more upmarket range of shops than the neighbou ...

(at the corner of Royal Bank Place); Wilson Street (at the intersection of Glassford Street, completely restored); one on Sauchiehall street at the junction with West Nile Street and one near the corner of Cathedral Square (at the corner of Castle Street, also restored). There was also a red police box preserved in the Glasgow Museum of Transport but this was returned to the Civil Defence Trust after Glasgow City Council decided it did not fit in with the new Transport Museum. The police boxes in Glasgow on Great Western Road, Cathedral Square, and Buchanan Street are currently under licence to a Glasgow-based coffee outlet. , only the Great Western Road and Buchanan Street 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. Dinky Toy Police box

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 National Tramway Museum,

Crich Crich is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire. Besides the village of Crich, the civil parish includes the nearby villages of Fritchley, Whatstandwell and Wheatcroft, Derbyshire, Wheatcroft. The population of the civi ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

. One of the trust's boxes stands outside the Kent Police Museum in

Chatham, Kent Chatham ( ) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596. Th ...

, and another at Grampian Transport Museum. An original MacKenzie Trench box exists outside of the Metropolitan Police College ( Peel Centre) at

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

. In the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, there are eight non-functioning police "call posts" still in place which are Grade II

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The

City of London Police The City of London Police is the territorial police force#United Kingdom, territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle Temple, Middle and Inner Temple, Inner Temples. The for ...

versions were cast iron rectangular posts, as the streets are too narrow for full sized boxes. One compartment contained the telephone and another locked compartment held a

. Fifty posts were installed in the "Square Mile" from 1907; they were in use until 1988. On Thursday 18 April 1996, a new police box based on the Mackenzie Trench design was unveiled outside the Earl's Court tube station in London, equipped with

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

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 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.

also has Help Points similar to those in Glasgow, which contain a siren that is activated upon the emergency button being pressed; this also causes

cameras nearby to focus on the Help Point. 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. The box contains a yellow phone for when it is not staffed by police, along with security cameras and a defibrillator. In February 2021, the

launched a competition to bring a back a new and updated police box to its streets, with the winning entry unveiled in June that year.

In ''Doctor Who''

The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

science-fiction television series ''

'' features a time machine, the

, disguised as a Mackenzie Trench-style police box. As 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 A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

to use the blue police box design in merchandising associated with ''Doctor Who''. In 1998, the Metropolitan Police filed an objection to the trademark claim, maintaining that they owned the

rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

to the police box image. In 2002, the

Patent Office A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether the applicati ...

ruled in favour of the BBC, arguing that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police—or any other police force—had ever registered the image as a trademark. In addition, the BBC had been selling

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police. The series was revived in 2005, and the police box continues to feature prominently in almost every episode.

United States

The first police telephone was installed in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

in 1877, one year after

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

patented the telephone. Call boxes for use by both police and trusted members of the public were first installed in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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."History of the Chicago Police", John Joseph Flinn & John Elbert Wilkie (1887). In 1883,

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

installed its own system;

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

installed police call boxes in 1884, and in 1885,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

followed suit. 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".

Gallery

File:Baltimore-police-box.jpg, A modern police box in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, Maryland; based on the British concept and operated by the

Baltimore Police Department The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering of land and of waterw ...

File:Sfpolicebox.jpg,

Fire alarm A fire alarm system is a building system designed to detect, alert occupants, and alert emergency forces of the presence of fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, or other fire-related emergencies. Fire alarm systems are required in most commercial buil ...

and police call box in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California; one of 2,040 and 460 in the city File:EdinburghCoffeeBox.jpg, This police box in

now serves as a coffee shop. File:Old police box, Richmond Lane - geograph.org.uk - 1132688.jpg, This police box in

now serves as an art gallery. File:Edinburgh Police Box - Cowgate, near Pleasance 001.jpg, An

police box with graffiti from the

2014 Scottish independence referendum A independence referendum, referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or ...

File:Scarborough Police Box (Large).JPG, A police box on the seafront at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

File:CoventGardenPoliceBox.jpg, An old police box (no telephone) in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

, London File:Police box, London EC3 - geograph.org.uk - 2836010.jpg, A

post on

Eastcheap Eastcheap is a street in central London that is a western continuation of Great Tower Street towards Monument junction. Its name derives from ''cheap'', the Old English word for marketplace, market, with the prefix 'East' distinguishing it from ...

, 1981 File:StMartinsLeGrand-PoliceCallBox.jpg, Police telephone post (not functional) at St. Martin's Le Grand, London — painted (incorrectly) in ' Met' dark blue. '

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

' boxes were painted in a light blue. File:Police Box, Glasgow - DSC06282.JPG, A Mackenzie Trench design police box in

File:Sheffield police Box.png, A 1929 police box that stands on Surrey Street, outside

Sheffield Town Hall Sheffield Town Hall is a municipal building on Pinstone Street in the Sheffield, City of Sheffield, England. The building is used by Sheffield City Council, and also contains a publicly displayed collection of silverware. It is a Grade I liste ...

. It is still used as a post for city ambassadors, providing tourist information. File:Glasgow particular turned hemp dispensary 2017-05-18.jpg, A

police box (red variation of a Mackenzie Trench) near the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall serving as a hemp dispensary File:Police Box, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.jpg, A rare brick-built police box in

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...

References

* * ''The Rise and Fall of the Police Box'', John Bunker (October 2011). * ''From Rattle to Radio'', John Bunker (November 1988).

External links

* . * * * — a guide to the various police box props used in ''Doctor Who'' over the years, and their relationship to real police boxes. * . * — set devoted to tracking down remaining Edinburgh police boxes. * — fine art policebox photographic typology. * * — catalogue of police box models. *
Police Public Call Box. A guide to see real life Police Boxes around the UK

The Police Box Map

Police Box locations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Police Box Public phones Police culture Box, Police Law enforcement in the United Kingdom Street furniture Doctor Who category:History of the Metropolitan Police