POLICE BOXES

Once a familiar sight in cities across the UK, only a handful of these iconic structures remain today, with Glasgow home to the largest surviving collection. Although forever associated with Doctor Who as the time-travelling TARDIS, Glasgow’s last remaining police boxes faced demolition by the early 1990s. Thanks to a swift from GBPT and others, several of these historic landmarks were rescued and carefully restored. Today, they continue to watch over the city’s streets, reimagined for a range of 21st-century uses while preserving an important part of Glasgow’s architectural heritage.

History

Designed by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench, Chief Architect and Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police from 1920 to 1945, these innovative cast-concrete boxes transformed day-to-day policing for bobbies on the beat by serving as miniature police stations.They provided officers with a place to write reports, shelter from the weather and, when necessary, temporarily detain individuals before escorting them to a police station. The built-in telephone allowed both police officers and members of the public to call for assistance, while the distinctive lamp on the roof was illuminated to signal that police help was required.

Following the success of the design in London, a modified version was introduced in Glasgow in 1933. Adopted by the City of Glasgow Police, the new boxes replaced the city’s ageing cast-iron police boxes. Originally painted bright red, Glasgow’s police boxes were repainted blue in the late 1960s, reflecting their growing association with Doctor Who and its famous time machine, the TARDIS.

As personal radios and other portable communication devices became standard from the 1970s onwards, police boxes gradually fell out of use. By 1994, Strathclyde Police had decided to remove the ten remaining Mackenzie Trench police boxes still standing across Glasgow, bringing an end to an era—until a determined campaign to save them changed their fate.

The Project

A programme of ‘stealthy’ restoration was proposed using a mixture of volunteers, donated labour and materials, and students from Glasgow College of Building and Painting. Grant funding was also acquired through the Civic Environment Trust and the Shell Britain Award. An appeal published in a Doctor Who fanzine generated further donations from enthusiasts, while invaluable sponsorship in kind was provided by the Bell Decorating Group in Ardrossan and Hunter & Clark Contractors Ltd.

In 1995, GBPT took custody over four of the police boxes for restoration. The plight of these last boxes featured on BB2’s ‘One Foot in the Past’ programme and resulted in Historic Scotland reconsidering their decision not to list the structures. In June 1996, the first fully rehabilitated box was released onto the streets of Glasgow having been ‘lifted’ from its original haunt in Royal Exchange Square to its new site at Buchanan Street. The Box took on a new role as the smallest ‘art gallery’ in the UK and was planned to house a revolving series of artworks for unsuspecting members of the public to enjoy.

Three other boxes in the Trust’s care were gradually re-installed across Glasgow with the merchant city box opening in Christmas 1996 as a small replica museum of how the boxes were used in crime prevention.

Today, the Glasgow boxes serve a variety of functions from falafel and coffee dispensaries to a CBD product vendor. Of the 1000 Mackenzie Trench boxes originally constructed across the UK, only 11 remain and over half stand in Glasgow.