Glasgow Police Boxes

The corporate press releases that are circulated at work are usually pretty dull but one that came round the other day really piqued my interest. It related to the Merchant City Townscape Heritage Initiative which is aiming to regenerate parts of Glasgow's Merchant City area. There is some fantastic architecture in that part of the city so it's a really worthwhile exercise purely from a historic point of view but one minor makeover really interested me:

Police Box: Restoration of the cast concrete police boxes once common on the City’s streets but made redundant and surplus to police needs in 1996. Originally used for a variety of purposes – shelter for the officers, temporary prison cell for miscreants and emergency telephone point for the public. First occupying the City’s streets in the 1930’s the boxes are more recently famous as the time travelling TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension in Space) in the popular BBC series Doctor Who. Today only four remain on the public highway and are listed category ‘B’ as of architectural and historic interest. The THI provided a grant to repair the concrete casing of the box, repair its metal windows and reinstate the siren, electrics and signage to these fascinating structures.

There are a few police boxes dotted around Glasgow as well as one in the Transport Museum (which is a brilliant day out in itself). I used to walk past the Buchanan Street one every day for around 12 years on my way to work. For a while it was in a bit of a sorry state - regularly vandalised and at one point painted white with multi-coloured dots which cruelly mocked the thing. Then, it was painted to a vibrant Police Box blue. It was wonderful - not just that it has been restored but it now defines Buchanan Street in a really odd way. I think the reason is that it is strangely anachronistic. The buildings in Buchanan Street date from the time of Victorian grandeur, so it's not that it is entirely out of place in its surroundings, but it doesn't belong to the early 21st Century. It belongs to my childhood and it is as odd seeing this bright blue box on the street as it would turning round the corner to find the family's Austin A40 parked up.

Since Doctor Who has returned to our screens there are now a whole generation of children that recognise the Police Boxes as the TARDIS. The Merchant City box is on the junction of Wilson Street and Glassford Street. It was actually painted red before the renovation (as were most of the Glasgow Police Boxes) but the new paint other restorations are a really handsome makeover. It's nice that they have paid attention to little details like this but it is also a real attraction to any science fiction fans who would like to see what the iconic boxes look like in their original locations. Certainly, I'll be taking my son to see this when we are next in Glasgow.