Police box

[9] 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.

[8] Constables complained that the concrete boxes were extremely cold and damp compared to their wooden predecessors, so provisions were made for more powerful heaters.

[8] 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.

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.

The police boxes in Glasgow on Great Western Road, Cathedral Square, and Buchanan Street are currently under licence to a Glasgow-based coffee outlet.

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.

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.

[18] The City of London Police versions were cast iron rectangular posts, as the streets are too narrow for full sized boxes.

The new boxes are not booths but rather computerized kiosks that connect the caller to a police CCTV control room operator.

Boscombe in Bournemouth opened its own old-style police box in April 2014 in a bid to tackle crime in the area.

City of London launched in February 2021 a competition to bring a back a new and updated police box to its streets.

The BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who features a time machine, the TARDIS, disguised as a Mackenzie Trench-style police box.

In 2002, the Patent Office 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.

[3]: 3  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.

A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
An 1894 advertisement for the "Glasgow Style Police Signal Box System", sold by the National Telephone Company
A 1929 Mackenzie Trench design police box preserved at the National Tramway Museum in Crich , Derbyshire . Between 1929 and 1938 approximately 1,000 of these were built, with 685 installed in London. [ 9 ]
A slightly modified Mackenzie Trench police box, coloured red, as seen in Glasgow
Dinky Toy police box manufactured in the 1940s by British toy company Meccano Ltd , based on the mk1 design.
A Mackenzie Trench preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard , Hampshire
The TARDIS prop used from 2010 to 2017 seen at BBC Television Centre