Editing Police box (section)

=== 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.<ref name="The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}">"The Rise and Fall of the Police Box", John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}</ref> 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.<ref name="The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}" /> Constables complained that the concrete boxes were extremely cold and damp compared to their wooden predecessors, so provisions were made for more powerful heaters.<ref name="The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}" /> 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.<ref name="Met" /> 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.<ref name="Met" />

{{multiple image
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| image1 = Trafalgar Square (14968121812).jpg
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| image2 = Trafalgar Square Auxiliary Police Station - geograph.org.uk - 604813.jpg
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| footer = This police box (left, pictured in the late 1920s) at the south east corner of [[Trafalgar Square]] in London was constructed in the base of the lamp plinth. Today it is used for storage.}}
By 1953, there were 685 police boxes on the streets of Greater London,<ref>Stewart: 8.</ref> 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.<ref name="The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}" /> Between 1923 and 1960 the police box and/or post system had been adopted by most of the provincial police forces throughout Great Britain.<ref name="The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}" /> 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).<ref name="The Rise and Fall of the Police Box, John Bunker (October 2011). {{ISBN|978-1858584652}}" />

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 telephone number)|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]].<ref name="kiosk">{{cite web |url=http://www.kiosk-korner.co.uk/kiosk06.html |title=The Police Box Page |access-date=2007-01-23 |last=McPherson |first=Ian |year=2004 |work=Kiosk Korner |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070122215016/http://www.kiosk-korner.co.uk/kiosk06.html |archive-date=2007-01-22 }}</ref> At their peak there were 86 scattered around the city. In 2012, Lothian and Borders Police sold a further 22, leaving them owning 20.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/latest-news/police-box-sale-could-give-blues-to-buyers-1-2265349 |title=Police box sale could give blues to buyers |access-date=2013-03-09}}</ref>

[[File:Red Police Box - geograph.org.uk - 372923.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|A slightly modified Mackenzie Trench police box, coloured red, as seen in Glasgow]]

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.<ref name="Stewart" />

In 1994, [[Strathclyde Police]] decided to scrap the remaining Glasgow police boxes.<ref name="CDESPT">{{cite web |url=http://website.lineone.net/~civildefence/cont1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010430044720/http://website.lineone.net/~civildefence/cont1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2001-04-30 |title=The Police Boxes |access-date=2007-01-23 |work=Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust website }}</ref> 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.<ref name="CDESPT" /> At least five remain&mdash;on [[A82 road|Great Western Road]] (at the junction with [[Queen Margaret Drive]] and [[Byres Road]]); [[Buchanan Street]] (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.<ref name="kiosk" /> {{As of|2009}}, 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.

[[File:Dinky Toy Police box.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Dinky Toys|Dinky Toy]] police box manufactured in the 1940s by British toy company [[Meccano Ltd]], based on the mk1 design.]]
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]], [[Derbyshire]]. One of the trust's boxes stands outside the [[Kent Police Museum]] in [[Chatham, Kent]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kent-police-museum.co.uk/core_pages/police_box.shtml |title=Kent Police Museum - Police Box |access-date=2010-04-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125153750/http://www.kent-police-museum.co.uk/core_pages/police_box.shtml |archive-date=2010-01-25 }} Kent Police Museum</ref> and another at Grampian Transport Museum. An original MacKenzie Trench box exists outside of the [[Metropolitan Police]] College ([[Peel Centre]]) at [[Hendon]].

In the [[City of London]], there are eight non-functioning police "call posts" still in place which are Grade II [[listed buildings]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/england/greater+london/city+of+london|title=Listed Buildings in England|first=Good|last=Stuff|website=www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk}}</ref> The [[City of London Police]] 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 [[first aid kit]]. Fifty posts were installed in the "Square Mile" from 1907; they were in use until 1988.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.london-footprints.co.uk/wklaworderroute.htm|title=Law & Order route|website=www.london-footprints.co.uk}}</ref>

[[File:Police box, Portsmouth.jpg|left|thumb|upright|A Mackenzie Trench preserved at [[Portsmouth Historic Dockyard]], Hampshire]]
On Thursday 18 April 1996,<ref>{{cite news |title=The Earl's Court Police Box, London, UK |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A13746215 |work=[[BBC h2g2]] |date=2006-11-23 |access-date=2013-08-14 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124062221/http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A13746215 |url-status=dead }}</ref> a new police box based on the Mackenzie Trench design was unveiled outside the [[Earl's Court tube station]] in London, equipped with [[Closed-circuit television|CCTV]] cameras and a telephone to contact police.<ref name="Met" /> The telephone ceased to function in April 2000 when London's [[telephone numbers in the United Kingdom|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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Police box offering hi-tech help |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4181052.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |date=2005-08-24 |access-date=2007-01-17 }}</ref>

[[Manchester]] 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 [[CCTV]] 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.<ref name="boscombe">{{cite news |last=Frampton |first=Will |url= http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/11158130.Police_box_Tardis_pulls_the_crowds_at_Boscombe/ |title=Police box Tardis pulls the crowds at Boscombe |work=[[Bournemouth Daily Echo]] |date=2014-04-18 |access-date=2017-04-22}}</ref> 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 [[City of London]] launched a competition to bring a back a new and updated police box to its streets,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/01/police-boxes-digital-age-set-return-streets/|title=Police Boxes for the digital age set to return our streets|first=Martin|last=Evans|newspaper=The Telegraph |date=February 1, 2021|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref> with the winning entry unveiled in June that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.cityoflondon.gov.uk/winning-design-for-21st-century-city-police-boxes-unveiled/|title=Winning design for 21st Century City Police Boxes unveiled|website=www.cityoflondon.gov.uk}}</ref>