BOX FULL

Police Box on Scarborough seafront.
A police box is a British telephone kiosk or callbox located in a public place for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police. Unlike an ordinary callbox, its telephone is located behind a hinged door so it can be used from the outside, and the interior of the box is, in effect, a miniature police station for use by police officers.

These rectangular, wooden police boxes were created by Gilbert MacKenzie Trench and by 1953 there were 685 police boxes on the streets of London alone.Many boxes are now disused or have been withdrawn from service.

The typical police box contained a telephone linked directly to the local police station, allowing patrolling officers to keep in contact with the station, reporting anything unusual or requesting help if necessary. A light on top of the box would flash to alert an officer that he/she was requested to contact the station.

Members of the public could also use the phone to contact a police station in an emergency.

British police boxes were usually blue, except in Glasgow, where they were red until the late 1960s.

The BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who features a time machine, the TARDIS, disguised as a Mackenzie Trench-style police box; normally capable of disguising itself to blend in to its surroundings, the ship's chameleon circuit broke down and left the TARDIS seen most often in the show stuck as a police box.