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Here to explore the complexities of urban environments, tell stories through spatial design, and capture moments through visual media.





City of London: Police Box

Team work
Urban Research Project
City of London, London
January -June 2024

 This archival research project, led by the City of London Police Office and funded by Bloomberg Associates, is supervised by Ben Campkin, Vice-Dean Public and City Engagement for The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment . The project supports the launch exhibition for the new public design of the police box by re-collecting and re-examining historical materials. It aims to trace the historical development of the police box, reflecting broader urban, technological, and societal changes, to demonstrate the necessity of reintroducing the police box. Through archival photos, key elements of the old design will be re-verified to inform the new design.







In Britain in the early 1900s the police installed signal points with telephones for use by constables and the public in emergencies and to improve routine communications. Over subsequent decades, multiple versions of police boxes, larger than the original signal units, a kind of miniature police station, were designed and built. In addition to their functional uses, these structures gave a new visibility to police presence. Although nowadays extant police boxes are rare, their historical development reflects wider urban, technological, and societal changes. They represent an important form of everyday civic architecture, which enabled more efficient communication, mediated by technology, changing perceptions of security.




Following its invention in 1877 the telephone was quickly recognised by as a potentially transformative tool in the fight against crime by police forces internationally. After several years of technical exploration, a pivotal moment occurred in 1891 when one of the earliest police signal boxes was patented. These were designed for police officers to connect with the station and for the public to use in emergencies. These early installations marked the starting point for the subsequent development of police boxes across the UK.



The evolution of the police box reached another significant moment in 1923 when a more widespread and meticulously planned system was launched. During this period, police boxes became prevalent across the country. From then until the 1960s, design refinements in material, functionality, and colour developed iteratively. During this period, thousands of police boxes and telephone pillars (police call posts) appeared in a variety of cities and rural areas. Police boxes, at this juncture, played a crucial role, providing invaluable services to the public. In addition to providing a visible police presence, instilling a sense of civic order, and facilitating the combatting of crime, they were places to report fires, summon an ambulance, or otherwise signal an emergency. Modern in their functionality, they were elegantly designed in a paired down neo-classical style, providing a sense of continuity with the past and conveying the authority of traditional urban institutions at a micro scale.

 
The BBC television show Doctor Who in 1963 saw the launch of the dark blue police box named the TARDIS which would become the most enduring and beloved image of police boxes in popular culture. Ironically, during the same period, actual police boxes were disappearing, without fanfare, largely due to the introduction of personal radios as a ubiquitous technology. Nowadays, when most people carry a mobile phone, police boxes might seem obsolete. Yet their historical trajectory shows their responsiveness to urban societal and environmental change. Proposals to reintroduce them suggest their malleability to new technologies and civic uses as cities change.
click to see the demolishing ...



Although the police box is most associated with the UK, it is an international phenomenon, with variations like the Japanese Kōban,and similar structures in Singapore. In the UK, the boxes became obsolete with the development of private radio communication methods and diminished in number in the 1960s. However, in Japan, Kōban, previously known as Hashutsujo, have endured and are still used today.
Field by Urban Research Archival Research