Its name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had its main public entrance on the Westminster street called Great Scotland Yard.

In 1967 the MPS consolidated its headquarters from the three-building complex to a tall, newly constructed "New Scotland Yard" building on Broadway in nearby Victoria.

In 2013, it was announced that the force would move again to the Victoria Embankment at Westminster's Curtis Green Building, which following tradition was renamed "New Scotland Yard".

[10] 10 Broadway was sold to the Abu Dhabi Financial Group in December 2014 for £370 million, and redevelopment plans for a six-building, mixed-use development were approved in February 2016.

[11] Ownership was officially passed from the MPA to the Abu Dhabi Financial Group when the relocation was completed on 31 October 2016;[6] the building began demolition later that year.

[16] Scotland Yard has appeared in books, films, and television since the Victorian era when it featured in the Jack the Ripper cases and the stories of Sherlock Holmes.

[17][18] Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone (1868), a tale of a Scotland Yard Detective investigating the theft of a valuable diamond, has been described as perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre.

[21] Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 thriller film Blackmail (widely considered the first British "talkie") features a Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (played by John Longden).

Columbo visits Scotland Yard to study the investigative techniques they use in London before becoming involved as a consultant for a murder case.

[citation needed] New Scotland Yard has also appeared in the movie V For Vendetta and the video game Watch Dogs: Legion as the primary hub for the private military police force, Albion.