Locations of Metropolitan Police Boxes and Posts

[Scarfwearer]

If starcross is happy, let me see what I can do about importing these mechanically.

Crispin

[starcross]

If starcross is happy, let me see what I can do about importing these mechanically.

Sounds good to me, if you can snag the data from google then it will just be some detailing left to do.

I've been thinking about Edinburgh as well the last few days. My schedule these days has lightened enough I get to have hobbies again. I have m
ap and street view s for all the existing boxes I'm not sure if its suitable for your import/ export process however. The rest of the survey would need to be manual however as I never mapped them.

[petewilson]

Starcross are you mapping Glasgow also?
(I was promised a list of those boxes by someone on here a while back but it never 'materialised')
Did Edinburgh have Met-type boxes also 
I thought they were "Garden Shed" type boxes?

Pete

[starcross]

Starcross are you mapping Glasgow also?

No, I never planned to map Glasgow. Without a survey or access to the correct scale of Ordnance Survey Maps from the right year it would be impossible.
I do have about a dozen photos of now removed boxes, but beyond that I mapped just the ones that exist now (in Glasgow and elsewhere actually).

Did Edinburgh have Met-type boxes also 

Edinburgh had unique large style boxes, but they did have the Police Posts in common with the Met.

[hb88banzai]

Well, a quick look shows that yes, there are readily available OS Maps (low-res versions, anyway) of the right scale in the right years to be able to do a survey. A random search of an extract shows a PCB popping up plain as day (Cathedral Street and Stirling Road), confirmed over multiple years.

A list of Boxes would be a better place to start than trying to scour OS Maps, however. Do we even know an exact number of how many there were? Oh wait, there it is - 323 of them by one report. I've heard they were far more densely distributed, more like City of London Posts.  There being so many it might be wise to consider a separate Database for them.

Might be fun, regardless. I wonder how many 1:2500 OS Map extracts it would take to cover all of Glasgow?

[starcross]

Well, a quick look shows that yes, there are readily available OS Maps (low-res versions, anyway) of the right scale in the right years to be able to do a survey.

I did a quick check on the surveys I have for Edinburgh, and I found three boxes on two OS Map samples. Two were known to exist and the third was just a street name on the list. I think a complete mapping project could be quite doable in Edinburgh.

Unfortunately the City of London is another matter completely as I couldn't locate any of the posts on the maps even though they have been in position for nearly 100 years. I thought the easiest to locate would be the three around St. Paul's Cathedral but nothing.

Still all in all I wonder how many other towns and cities that had the police boxes would show up on OS Maps, we can cross reference with "rise and fall" to see I suppose.

[hb88banzai]

I was able to locate a few of the City of London Posts. I'll PM you with info.

There is a huge handicap in central London in that all the right sized OS maps seem to be from after the war. There is almost no coverage pre-war that show the Posts on the sites I've seen. So much damage was done in WWII with consequent redevelopment, coupled with the spotty record of OS maps with showing Posts leads to lots of disappointment for the CoL posts, I'm afraid. Almost impossible to tell if missing Posts are due to oversight or removal during/after the war.

But Edinburgh and Glasgow are a different matter entirely. Coverage seems to be excellent in exactly the years we need. The only issue is that both systems were BIG, and for Glasgow I haven't found a list so far. That means a map search with lots of small type and sketchy resolution over many, many maps.

[starcross]

I was able to locate a few of the City of London Posts. I'll PM you with info.

Nice, I can use that to narrow down the locations I already have.

But Edinburgh and Glasgow are a different matter entirely.

It just means we need to figure out how we want to input the data and start the right database section to begin populating.

I've already found six Edinburgh boxes that I didn't have before just by using the survey street names.
At least for Edinburgh I have the existing 75 mapped and geotagged with photos, mind you we'll have to weed out the coffee stalls as re-sited /re-purposed boxes.

When we have an action plan for data input let me know.
I'm itching to start making entries as I'm digging into this new source of info.

[Scarfwearer]

Hi guys,
Just to let you know I haven't forgotten about this. I've been constructing a bathroom prior to guest arrival, so haven't had much quality time with the computer.

I managed to mechanically extract the CoL data from starcross's map using the KML download - I just haven't had time to upload it to the forum database yet. I could do the same thing with other google maps.

EDIT: I just had a quick look at the three Edinburgh maps, but can't see the KML download button. D'you have to share this explicitly with google maps? It showed up on the CoL map...

I still need to seal the sink waste and plumb in the taps, but after that I hope to spend some time on this.

Crispin

Here's what I extracted:
Long.,Lat.,Name
-0.075016,51.507061,CoL - 1
-0.080101,51.509571,CoL - 2
-0.074029,51.514469,CoL - 3
-0.088331,51.513649,CoL - 4
-0.079050,51.520226,CoL - 5
-0.082328,51.517433,CoL - 6
-0.087698,51.519253,CoL - 7
-0.092440,51.521027,CoL - 8
-0.097418,51.520012,CoL - 9
-0.101001,51.518826,CoL - 10
-0.105357,51.518570,CoL - 11
-0.107613,51.517658,CoL - 12
-0.104456,51.514126,CoL - 13
-0.111558,51.513657,CoL - 14
-0.110507,51.510887,CoL - 15
-0.104166,51.511211,CoL - 16
-0.093083,51.510719,CoL - 17
-0.087204,51.509518,CoL - 18
-0.084404,51.509357,CoL - 19
-0.096989,51.514393,CoL - 20
-0.077355,51.511585,CoL - 21
-0.083076,51.510601,CoL - 22
-0.079887,51.512222,CoL - 23
-0.085166,51.511921,CoL - 24
-0.081239,51.513531,CoL - 25
-0.086421,51.510727,CoL - 26
-0.088320,51.509911,CoL - 27
-0.073793,51.509262,CoL - 28
-0.076003,51.513798,CoL - 29
-0.077162,51.515366,CoL - 30
-0.078803,51.515400,CoL - 31
-0.081754,51.516140,CoL - 32
-0.083674,51.514431,CoL - 33
-0.086131,51.516861,CoL - 34
-0.085379,51.514771,CoL - 35
-0.088706,51.517315,CoL - 36
-0.090766,51.511723,CoL - 37
-0.092375,51.513817,CoL - 38
-0.096014,51.512032,CoL - 39
-0.094500,51.515713,CoL - 40
-0.092955,51.518436,CoL - 41
-0.097021,51.516842,CoL - 42
-0.100583,51.513744,CoL - 43
-0.092504,51.512669,CoL - 44
-0.099370,51.511185,CoL - 45
-0.098094,51.515186,CoL - 46
-0.096635,51.512920,CoL - 47
-0.103168,51.512119,CoL - 48
-0.104842,51.515862,CoL - 49
-0.103726,51.519093,CoL - 50
-0.107632,51.514191,CoL - 51
-0.109069,51.515888,CoL - 52
-0.108436,51.512539,CoL - 53
-0.111258,51.518238,CoL - 55
-0.090219,51.514874,CoL - 56
-0.101924,51.516220,CoL - 57
-0.092204,51.515152,CoL - 54
-0.104349,51.508461,CoL - 58
-0.094671,51.507835,CoL - 59
-0.088148,51.506741,CoL - 60
-0.089875,51.512875,CoL - 61

[hb88banzai]

No rush.

[scruffy57]

Also, theres a pic out there of a woman and a child sitting by a Box located by some park railings which a lot of people believe is a box in Peckham / Peckham Rye. I don't think it is. I believe it could Box L7, Queens Circus, Battersea. I could be wrong..... i probably am!

But then... theres a few more parks out there and a huge list still to work through, so that may change. But i really don't think its Peckham!

You may be right. The railings look the same type, and 400 yards would put it about opposite the Chelsea Bridge Hotel and Spa.  I'd call that photo early 60s though, which means things have definitely changed in 50 years.  The lamp-post may have been moved, the pavement's definitely been modernised, and there are no trees this side of the railings any more.  Also, what were they sitting on?  Was that a bus stop?  If so, there isn't one there now.  If that's a GPO box then it might be locatable, because there's one of them in roughly the right place.

You're doing brilliantly by the way, keep up the good work.  Though I agree you do need to get out more...and check out Police Box locations!

A note about dating street photographs. There would have been almost no personal photography during the Second World War, simply because you'd get arrested as a spy for taking photos in the street.  I suspect the few photos we have of boxes dressed up as ARP stations were official ones.  That attitude would probably have lasted a little while into the late 40s and early 50s.  But then I think that the late 50s and early 60s were probably the first time that ordinary people could afford a simple camera, and so a lot of b&w London street photos are probably from that period.  My dad was certainly an avid photographer around 1959-1965.  Unfortunately he preferred the countryside so I have no old police box photos lurking around in any of his collections!

-Dave
[/quote]

Could this box be on London Rd at Figges Marsh Mitcham??
Scruffy

[Rassilons Rod]

Could this box be on London Rd at Figges Marsh Mitcham??
Scruffy

Well that's very near where I live. I suppose it could be... but I'd be very surprised if there was that kind of fence around the park. It's certainly very open plan now.

Are there any other photos to compare? This one is sadly lacking in background details... :/

[petewilson]

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=5313.msg74935#msg74935

[scruffy57]

This map shows fencing around that end of the Marsh, but the box looks to further away than in the picture

[Dalekoracle]

Take a look at the last post in this thread:
http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=5313.0
It's a fascinating story - and proving to be quite a connundrum this box.
The photo resurfaced a while back with someone claiming to be the girl in the photo, identifying the date and the location as "Hastings"
Hb88banzai put the photo through its paces and revealed a LOT of hitherto unseen detail in the photo - especially behind the box.
Looking at that enhanced photo, I really don't think its the location you've suggested.