Original Police Box Colour

[galacticprobe]

Is it possible that the box in KB's pic is simply badly weathered, and hasn't had a repaint in a while? We all know how paint fades when it weathers outside (and the light, oxidized layer rubs off on your hands and clothing if you so much as brush lightly against it).

At any road, that color looks remarkably close to that of the 2005 box.

Dino.

[lorisarvendu]

I wonder if it's simply to do with white balance and the colour blue.  Most of the colour pictures we have of police boxes are incidental shots taken as part of a picture postcard, or landscapes, or in movies.  The police box is merely part of the background.  Getting the subjects correctly lit (or the right colour) is more important than the right shade of blue on a piece of street furniture in the rear of shot.  Since no actual boxes exist in situ with their original paint job, the only reference we have for colour is these aforementioned "accidental" photographs.  I personally do remember an actual box being a very dark blue, almost black, and other (older) members have agreed with this.  KB's screen-shot from "Genevieve" is a good case. Perhaps the film-makers were more interested in ensuring the actors showed up in a good light than in correctly portraying the colour of the police box behind them!

We already know that the colour of the BBC prop has changed on-screen over the years, but I'm sure the BBC didn't repaint it every other week, so these changes in colour must be down to whether it was shot on film, in the studio, or what the lighting for the scene was like at the time (again this has been confirmed by other members who have seen the props first-hand, often commenting that the box appears far darker in real life than on-screen).  Even photos of builds on this board have come out a lighter blue than they appear in real life. Compare the colour of the box in "Spearhead from Space" and "Terror of the Autons" for example.

It's quite possible that in 50 years or so, when the last people who ever saw real police boxes are dead (yeah, me included), the only evidence that will exist for the colour is photos - and they may well be wrong.

[chriskingbees]

Hmm.. PeteD, as an authority on such things, I trust entirely, has posted that Met boxes were royal blue gloss, but I wonder what "Royal blue" really means. It seems to me that royal blue is considered much lighter a shade than it used to be. Both Reading and Chelsea football clubs, wear royal blue in their respective strips and the colour of those has lightened considerably since the 70s, when I started watching football. I vividly remember Met boxes as being very nearly black. As for fading, isn't it the norm that dark colours fade to light in the sun? Look at all the pink telephone and letter boxes on our streets

KB

[lorisarvendu]

True. I doubt that all police boxes in London were all painted at the exact same time each year, so some will have faded and some will have had new coats.  Personally the Kingsbury box (at the junction of Springfield Mount and Edgware Road, NW9) was almost black round about 1968/69 which was when I was aware of it. The box in the background of that screen-shot from Genevieve dates it to 1952/53 (when the film was made).

So maybe the Met changed from a lighter blue to a darker blue sometime in the 60s?  We could do with a poll of members who remember seeing a police box. When did you see it, and what colour was it?

Also a major point in favour of them being a very dark blue is the appearance of the box in the two Cushing movies.  Police boxes would have still been a familiar site when both those films were made, so the colour of the TARDIS should be a good approximation of the colour of an actual box.  Why make it a different colour?  Like you wouldn't put a telephone box in a film and paint it orange, would you? 

I would say this is a good pointer to the actual colour of a Police Box during the mid to late 1960s.  However as to the 50s or the 40s, maybe the colour was different then?

[deck5]

A lot of blues get called 'Royal', especially for fashion fabrics, but this is what I'd consider Royal Blue (subject to the vagaries of your particular monitor):



Addendum -- An interesting article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_blue

[starcross]

I thought I would chime in on this debate.

According to sources I can't seem to find in my archives Police Posts were painted two colors; "Bermuda Blue" for City Police, and "Marina Blue" For the Met. Although without being able to find the notes on that I can't confirm the Met color, it was M something in any case. Either way the paint store had no idea what I was talking about a few years ago when I tried to find out if anyone made such colors.

I'll make an update if I can locate the passage somewhere.

Cheers,

~Starcross

[chriskingbees]

From the shadows, this example is bathed in sunlight and it is very, very dark. The presence of a trolley bus takes it into the 50s, I'd have thought

KB

[deck5]

Here's an (unofficial) reference for Marine Blue:



And Bermuda Blue:

[starcross]

Police Posts were painted two colors; "Bermuda Blue" for City Police, and "Marina Blue" For the Met.

I'll make an update if I can locate the passage somewhere.

I took a look around and found where the two colors come from, and located the source. Its the flickr page for a man who owns a Police Post, and one of the notes is about colors.

Bermuda is correct, but Marina is not as he has it as Oxford Blue. Although the two sample above are visually in the correct range for the colors I've seen on some surviving Posts.

Although, as this is the owners notes, I can't confirm how accurate they are.

~Starcross

[deck5]

Oxford Blue:

[lorisarvendu]

From the shadows, this example is bathed in sunlight and it is very, very dark. The presence of a trolley bus takes it into the 50s, I'd have thought

KB

I wonder if it felt reassuring to sit in that bus shelter late at night with a police box right nearby.

[exleo]

The colour specified on the BBC Police Box Blueprints is Prussian Blue.....

[zbigniev hamson]

Also a major point in favour of them being a very dark blue is the appearance of the box in the two Cushing movies.  Police boxes would have still been a familiar site when both those films were made, so the colour of the TARDIS should be a good approximation of the colour of an actual box.  Why make it a different colour?  Like you wouldn't put a telephone box in a film and paint it orange, would you? 

I would say this is a good pointer to the actual colour of a Police Box during the mid to late 1960s.  However as to the 50s or the 40s, maybe the colour was different then?

Thinking along the same line, the 50s Dinky toy models were also made at a time when they would have been a familiar site, and these are also quite dark.

And I can also testify that, when photographing my model TARDIS, the colouring very rarely seems to match up with reality. It can vary considerably from shot to shot, and most of the time looks a lot lighter than it looks to the human eye.

[galacticprobe]

The colour specified on the BBC Police Box Blueprints is Prussian Blue.....

Which version of Police Box are the blueprints for: Classic or New Series? (And which version of those: New, 2005 or 2010? Classic... Brachacki, Newbery, or Yardley-Jones?) And does anyone know what color was used on the Hudolin box?

Dino.

[anson]

Here are some images of paint samples that Mark Johnson got from the Crich box before it's repaint.
As you can see, very similar to Oxford blue but a lot darker.



I suspect this is the colour 'Bermuda blue' that Starcross talks of.

In context;



Incidentally, Prussia blue is mentioned on the Newbery and the TYJ BBC plans - obviously this colour is closer to Marina blue...

Cheers,

Anson (and Anita)

EDIT: Replaced photobucket links with full original jpgs per forum preference - banzai