Today this blue box is best known as Dr Who's Time Machine but the real police box has a history of it's own.
The police "signal post" (as it was called) appeared on the streets of London in the 1880s and made use of the newly-invented telephone. For the first time, the policeman on the beat could keep in touch with his local station. Regional variations abounded. In Glasgow the early boxes even had a remote controlled gas lamp to summon the policeman on the beat. The ultimate design was at Trafalgar Square where the box was put inside a stone pillar topped by a lamp from Nelson's ship
And it wasn't long before the posts became fully-fledged boxes and objects of great civic pride. Inside, there was a first aid kit, a desk and a log book. Police boxes were also a place for the weary copper to have a rest and a cup of tea.
Some boxes had a telephone for public use. With a direct line to the police it was claimed "the boxes deterred the rougher and more violent class of prisoner as police officers could quickly obtain assistance".
The classic "Dr Who" police box was the new improved concrete model launched in 1929. These boxes materialised all over the country and to educate the public, demonstrations were given at the 1936 Radio Show: "Perhaps you've noticed those blue telephone boxes labelled 'police box' but some of you still think that they're only for us to use. They are not. They are for you to use, and we want you to use them. There is a little window, through which you can get to the telephone which is in direct communication with the nearest police station."
During the war, the police box saw heroic service. With sirens replacing flashing lamps they doubled up as air-raid warning posts. The hey-day came for the police box in the 1950s. London alone had almost 700 and by the early 60s they were one of the most common sights on the streets of Britain. So it wasn't surprising that a certain time lord chose it as the disguise for his stolen time machine.
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But for the police, times were changing fast. With two-way radios and quick-response patrol cars, the old-style box was on the way out.
The final blow came in 1969 when the Home Secretary ordered the removal of London's boxes. Vandalism! Today the police box is the Tardis, stranded in time and space and modelled on something which, in the real world, has dematerialised forever.
For informatrion about Police Public Call Boxes in Australia, click here.
