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Police Boxes

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:40 am
by ColonelCrow
How many Police Boxes are there in Glasgow? There's the one near Borders on Buchanan St, and one next to the Botanics on Byres Rd..but are there any more?
How long have they been there...I seem to remember them being there ever since I was a wee lad visiting the city (I live here now). Have they ever been operative, and why are they still there?

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:55 am
by DickyHart
There is one at the top of John Knox Street at the royal infirmary, also next to Bacchus in Stockwell street i think. They all used to work and i think some of them are listed.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:58 am
by Fossil
Wilson Streets, Cathedral Square. They were in use up to I think the 80’s:? There's a plaque on the one in Wilson Street...Can’t remember now but is it something to do with Dr Who preservation trust Wilson Streets got one Cathedral Square:?:

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:59 am
by DMcNay
They were operative until a few years ago. Theres one in the Transport Museum.

Glasgow Buildings Preservation trust had something to do with restoring, as did the local Dr Who group.

I had some photos of them in their original locations, and I'm sure I had a picture of the inside of one, when I spotted a couple of policeman taking a break in it.
They're *tiny* inside. There's barely enough room for one person.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:05 am
by kn0wledge
Here's something you don't see every day, a RED police box..

http://colin.mylogic.net/out&about/glasgow/DSCF0052.JPG

It's in the merchant city.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:45 am
by caine
was the one at the top of byers road not paint in camoflage at one point as an art project?

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:48 am
by Sharon
ooooooo...id love to see a photo of one in camouflage (camoflage is another wee side project ive got going :) )

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:22 pm
by JayKay
kn0wledge wrote:Here's something you don't see every day, a RED police box..

http://colin.mylogic.net/out&about/glasgow/DSCF0052.JPG

It's in the merchant city.



ISTR reading that Glasgow Police boxes were all originally red in colour and painted blue in the mid 70's.

EDIT - There' s more on the Glasgow Police boxes at the Civil Defence and emergency service preservation trust website. The red one in Wilson Street is one of theirs.

http://website.lineone.net/~civildefence/cont1.htm

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 1:30 pm
by Osiris
There used to be one at St Enochs, I was in it once to make a statement. Unfortunately it wasn't bigger on the inside than out. Very functional looking though.

J

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 1:46 pm
by DMcNay
From what I can remember:

The one at Royal Exchange Square is now at the other side next to Borders. This is the one the local Dr Who group raised funds to restore. It was painted white with coloured dots for a while.

The one at the top of Buchanan Street, near wher Forbidden Plant is, is now at the Transport Museum.

The one at Byres Road/Great Western Road is still there.

The one at St Enochs may have been cannibalised to repair the others.

I seem to remember hearing they were red as well.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 1:50 pm
by nuttytigger
the only one i know of is the one in buchanan street, i seem to be very boring, and know nothing :cry:

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 2:01 pm
by JayKay
dr_lightning wrote:From what I can remember:

The one at Royal Exchange Square is now at the other side next to Borders. This is the one the local Dr Who group raised funds to restore. It was painted white with coloured dots for a while.


Image

Image

The spotted paint livery was in conjunction with the Gallery of Modern art and artist Ann Shaw.

more at http://members.lycos.co.uk/iancan/Kiosk6.html

Police boxes website

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 3:33 pm
by gap74
Gordon Barr has just started a page for the Glasgow Police Boxes, I think it was in response to a recent planning application to turn some of them into coffee stands, as in Edinburgh.

It's at:

http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~gbarr/tardis/

Gary

PostPosted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:03 pm
by Fossil
JayKay wrote:
dr_lightning wrote:From what I can remember:

The one at Royal Exchange Square is now at the other side next to Borders. This is the one the local Dr Who group raised funds to restore. It was painted white with coloured dots for a while.


Image

The spotted paint livery was in conjunction with the Gallery of Modern art and artist Ann Shaw.

more at http://members.lycos.co.uk/iancan/Kiosk6.html



Thanks JayKay good pics.
The little telephone door opened and in side the box was lined with mirrors (made it look huge when you looked in.............) if I remember right

-F-

Police Boxes

PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2004 12:31 am
by Alastair
Hi Folks,
The concrete and wood Police boxes that have been preserved at various locations throughout the City were installed between 1932 and 1938, to extend the old system. Previously, the first Police boxes in Glasgow (and reputedly in the UK) were designed in 1891 by Fire Engineer Eggar of Glasgow Fire Brigade. They were a hexagonal cast-iron box with a large lamp on top. When the phoe rank the gas light flared up and a red filter moved over the light to give a visual indication that the phone was ringing. A great bit of engineering........but.........the cast iron box they used was an export model of street toilet for Paris Oooops. We have copies of the original patent drawings for the 1891 Police box at the Glasgow Police Museum, 68 St. Andrew's Street.
The 1935 style Glasgow Police Signal Boxes (correct title) were originally red as the GPO maintained them for the police and used the same paint that they used for ordinary phone boxes and post boxes. They were painted blue around 1973, when the GPO ceased to maintain them.
There were also Police Pillars for street corners where a signal box would not fit. These pillars were a cast iron pillar with a cube (containing the phone) and a light on top. I remember laughing at the one on Wellington Street as someone had written "For thin polis only" on the side
While attached to Maryhill Police Office in the mid 1990's, I was shown a fairly hefty electricity bill for the Police box at the Botanic Gardens. As the box had been lying unused for several years, this caused a bit of a problem. I went down to the box and found that a dosser had been sleeping in it with the heater switched on!
The inside of these boxes was, as you say, very small but they were very handy. Inside they had, obviously, a telephone, desk, stool, coat hooks, heater, drawer with various official forms, books outlining the beat boundaries, photo books of local criminals and latterly a small safe containing spare police radios and batteries. They were useful for hiding out the rain/snow etc, holding prisoners while waiting for the van to collect them, interviewing witnesses, parking a police bike (vertically).......the list is only limited by your imagination.
Hope this helps