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Police Boxes on the streets of Edinburgh Historical Notes and Boxes for Sale |
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Comments 1. |
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Historical Notes Thank you to Keith P Hannay who wrote: "These police boxes were designed especially for Edinburgh to complement the city's buildings by the City Architect Ebenezer James MacRae FRIBA, 1881-1951. He was responsible for many public buildings (housing, schools etc) as well as being a conservationist in the immediate pre-war period." There is more about him on this Scottish Architects web site. Keith P Hannay: August 2, 2011 |
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Recollections More comments about the history of some of the Police Boxes can be found on the Police Box Recollections page |
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Comments 2. April 2012 |
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Condition of the Boxes I noticed during March/April 2012, that several of the police boxes in Central Edinburgh had been repaired and/or repainted. |
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Edinburgh Police Boxes
For Sale It was recently announced that 22 of the Edinburgh police boxes are to be offered for sale. The notes below are based on an article published in the Edinburgh Evening News on April 30, 2012: "Lothian & Borders Police Force has announced plans to sell off 22 of their Tardis-style boxes to the highest bidders. They are to be sold by Bonham's auctioneers who believe that they might fetch between £4,000 and £6,000 each. These boxes were designed by Ebenezer Rae to complement Edinburgh's classic architecture. They date from 1931-33. - At their peak there ware 86 police boxes around Edinburgh. - In 1995, 33 boxes were sold. Many of these are now being run by the Police Box Coffee Company. - More boxes were sold later. - There are now 42 boxes owned by the police, of which these 22 are to be offered for sale." The table below shows the police boxes that were offered for sale in May 2012, together with photos of some of them that I took in May 2012:
"It is a condition of the sale that the boxes will have to be painted in a colour other than police blue, to prevent the public from confusing them with boxes that are still in operational use by community officers and traffic wardens. The boxes are cast iron and weigh two tonnes each. The sale of the boxes does not include the site that they stand on. - Successful bidders wishing to remove the boxes will have to do so at their own expense. - Those wishing to leave the boxes in place will have to seek permission to do so from the council." Edinburgh Evening News: April 30, 2012, p.9
(L) - The Offer Document below shows
that these boxes have been listed by Historic Scotland. |
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Offer Document I now have a copy of the offer document giving more details of the boxes for sale. It gives more information about the boxes being sold. - This style of box is unique to Edinburgh. - The boxes were designed by the City Architect, Ebenezer MacRae between 1931 and 1933 - The boxes include the Edinburgh City Crest and a ribboned wreath decoration. - The boxes measure 6' 6" x 4' 6" with a ridge height of approx 9' 0". They are cast iron and weigh about two tonnes each. - The closing date for offers for the boxes above is noon on May 31, 2012. |
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Comments 3. May 2012 |
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Information on the Internet After reading the comments above in the Edinburgh Evening News, I had a look on the Internet to see what else I could discover. There were many pages also commenting on the proposed sale of the police boxes, but I also found an on this Edinburgh Police Boxes - Geotag Maps and Anecdote page on the Flickr web site. It gives more details about the history of Edinburgh's police boxes together with details of most of the police boxes that are still in place in Edinburgh. The details below are taken from this site. |
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How Many Police Boxes? "1. When police boxes were first installed in Edinburgh in 1933, there were 141 boxes and also 13 police pillars. 2. A survey was conducted in 1992, and this found that 95 of these boxes were still in place. ** 3. It is believed that there are, at May 2012, approx 75 of the boxes still in place. The Geotag Maps and Anecdote page gives the street locations and map references for these, together with Google Street View photos of most of them. ** Source: Edinburgh Police Boxes - Geotag Maps and Anecdote web site on Flickr |
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Discrepancies ** Both these surveys appear to be almost complete, but there are a few boxes missing, and a couple of boxes listed that have since been removed. Where I am aware of any discrepancies in 3 above, I have adjusted for them on the list below, resulting in a total of 80 police boxes and 1 replica police box (on wheels) found at May 2012. |
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Comments 4. May 2012 |
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My Photos My own records and the photos that I have taken to date agree fairly closely with the Geotag Maps and Anecdote page above. This page lists the police boxes that I have photographed over the past few years, and has links to many of the Police Box photos.
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Police Boxes on the streets of Edinburgh Background and Boxes for Sale |
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Comments |
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- Background: Historical Note - Recollections |
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- Condition of the Boxes - Boxes for Sale: May 2012 |
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- Information on the Internet - How Many Police Boxes |
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4. |
- Condition of the Boxes - Boxes for Sale: May 2012 |
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Comments 1. |
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Background Historical Note Thank you to Keith P Hannay who wrote: "These police boxes were designed especially for Edinburgh to complement the city's buildings by the City Architect Ebenezer James MacRae FRIBA, 1881-1951. He was responsible for many public buildings (housing, schools etc) as well as being a conservationist in the immediate pre-war period." There is more about him on this Scottish Architects web site. Keith P Hannay: August 2, 2011 |
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Recollections More comments about the history of some of the Police Boxes can be found on the Police Box Recollections page |
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Comments 2. April 2012 |
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Condition of the Boxes I noticed during March/April 2012, that several of the police boxes in Central Edinburgh had been repaired and/or repainted. |
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Edinburgh Police Boxes
For Sale It was recently announced that 22 of the Edinburgh police boxes are to be offered for sale. The notes below are based on an article published in the Edinburgh Evening News on April 30, 2012: "Lothian & Borders Police Force has announced plans to sell off 22 of their Tardis-style boxes to the highest bidders. They are to be sold by Bonham's auctioneers who believe that they might fetch between £4,000 and £6,000 each. These boxes were designed by Ebenezer Rae to complement Edinburgh's classic architecture. They date from 1931-33. - At their peak there ware 86 police boxes around Edinburgh. - In 1995, 33 boxes were sold. Many of these are now being run by the Police Box Coffee Company. - More boxes were sold later. - There are now 42 boxes owned by the police, of which these 22 are to be offered for sale. The table below shows the police boxes that were offered for sale in May 2012, together with photos of some of them that I took in May 2012:
It is a condition of the sale that the boxes will have to be painted in a colour other than police blue, to prevent the public from confusing them with boxes that are still in operational use by community officers and traffic wardens. The boxes are cast iron and weigh two tonnes each. The sale of the boxes does not include the site that they stand on. - Successful bidders wishing to remove the boxes will have to do so at their own expense. - Those wishing to leave the boxes in place will have to seek permission to do so from the council." Edinburgh Evening News: April 30, 2012, p.9
(L) - The Offer Document below shows
that these boxes have been listed by Historic Scotland. |
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|
Offer Document I now have a copy of the offer document giving more details of the boxes for sale. It gives more information about the boxes being sold. - This style of box is unique to Edinburgh. - The boxes were designed by the City Architect, Ebenezer MacRae between 1931 and 1933 - The boxes include the Edinburgh City Crest and a ribboned wreath decoration. - The boxes measure 6' 6" x 4' 6" with a ridge height of approx 9' 0". They are cast iron and weigh about two tonnes each. - The closing date for offers for the boxes above is noon on May 31, 2012. |
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Comments 3. May 2012 |
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Information on the Internet After reading the comments above in the Edinburgh Evening News, I had a look on the Internet to see what else I could discover. There were many pages also commenting on the proposed sale of the police boxes, but I also found an on this Edinburgh Police Boxes - Geotag Maps and Anecdote page on the Flickr web site. It gives more details about the history of Edinburgh's police boxes together with details of most of the police boxes that are still in place in Edinburgh. The details below are taken from this site. |
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How Many Police Boxes? "1. When police boxes were first installed in Edinburgh in 1933, there were 141 boxes and also 13 police pillars. 2. A survey was conducted in 1992, and this found that 95 of these boxes were still in place. ** 3. It is believed that there are, at May 2012, approx 75 of the boxes still in place. The Geotag Maps and Anecdote page gives the street locations and map references for these, together with Google Street View photos of most of them. ** Source: Edinburgh Police Boxes - Geotag Maps and Anecdote web site on Flickr |
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Discrepancies ** Both these surveys appear to be almost complete, but there are a few boxes missing, and a couple of boxes listed that have since been removed. Where I am aware of any discrepancies in 3 above, I have adjusted for them on the list below, resulting in a total of 80 police boxes and 1 replica police box (on wheels) found at May 2012. |
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Comments 4. May 2012 |
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Police Boxes My own records and the photos that I have taken to date agree fairly closely with the Geotag Maps and Anecdote page above. This page lists the police boxes that I have photographed over the past few years, and has links to many of the Police Box photos.
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Comments 5. May 2012 |
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Police Boxes Sold Previously There were also sales of Police Boxes in earlier years: - 2007: 9 boxes sold - 1998: How many boxes sold - Which other years? How many boxes sold in each of these years? After the sale of the 22 boxes on May 31, 2012, there will still be 20 boxes still in the ownership of Lothian & Borders Police. The table at the top of this page of Police Box photos shows which these are. |
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Police Boxes |
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