‘A Visit to a Police Box’

Doors Open Days is Scotland’s largest free festival celebrating heritage and the built environment.  It offers free access to over a thousand venues nationwide each September. 

This afternoon we went to what must be one of the smallest venues in Edinburgh - a police box restored to how it might have been when it first opened in 1933, one of over 140 existing at that time. (Main photo - see also extras)

Edinburgh’s police boxes differ from the standard Tardis design because they were designed - by the  City Architect - to fit in with the city’s classical architecture.

At the time, they were an innovative way to allow officers to have a more focused presence in their communities by walking a beat around their "home" box rather than a more-distant police station. 

They provided a small office, complete with a telephone, to carry out paperwork, take breaks, and contact their divisional stations - and they gave the public a way of reporting incidents and summoning assistance.

The advent of accessible mobile communication, such as mobile phones and walkie-talkies, made the police box redundant. Many have been converted into kiosks, from free libraries and tour guide stations to selling a variety of different things, from coffee to flowers.