Newcastle, Great North Road, police box

HER Number:
16593

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Great North Road, police box

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Communications

Site Type: Broad:
Telecommunication Structure

Site Type: Specific:
Police Box

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Newcastle upon Tyne City Police introduced wooden police boxes in 1922 that were painted green and white, had two small square 6-light windows at the top of each elevation and red tiled roofs. They were designed by Chief Constable Fred Crawley and manufactured by Binns for £12 18s 6d each. The first Newcastle box was located at a busy junction on the Great North Road. The duty policeman was there to control the traffic. A blue glass gas lamp on a green lampost was added in front of the police box to show that it was permanently manned. Several years later a flashing alert lamp and gong were added. Between 1949 and 1953 a set of manually operated traffic lights were installed at the junction. A K6 phone box was added. The police box, K6 telephone box and the traffic lights are shown on a photo of circa 1955.

Easting:
24

Northing:
64

Grid Reference:
NZ2464

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Petra Caroline [Henderson]'s Police and Police Boxes Virtual Telephone Museum, Police Box Newcastle Style (1922-1925), www.henderson-tele.com/police/boxes/bytown2.html; Immanuel Burton, 2006, A Brief History of the Police Box, November 2006 newsletter of the Construction History Society, www.policeboxes.com; Decentralization and the Police Box System by Frederick James Crawley, Chief Constable of Newcastle upon Tyne, The Police Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, January 1928; Peter Darrington, 2005, A History of the British Police Telephone Kiosk