Rochester Way & Westwood Lane Box

[hb88banzai]

The Box on Rochester Way & Westwood Lane in Blackfen - R24



A blowup of the Box --



Current street view --



Rochester Way is now an elevated highway, so the actual Box Site is difficult to get a good view of via street view as it is now in a parking lot. It would be just in front of here, but down at ground level --



Approximate Box Site Street View:  http://maps.google.com/maps?q=westwood+lane,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.451847,0.103179&spn=0.001551,0.00736&sll=51.454355,0.063901&sspn=0.013665,0.02944&hnear=Westwood+Ln,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.452093,0.103229&panoid=VPK4nxMvmshw7cCrl4J8hw&cbp=11,188.72,,0,14.01

[DoctorWho8]

Looks like it almost got wiped out by that lorry accident in front of it.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[hb88banzai]

Certainly wouldn't have been the first time, or likely the last. They did tend to site many of these Boxes in rather vulnerable locations at dangerous intersections. Must have been a bit nerve wracking on occasion for a PC taking his break at a busy time of day.

[petewilson]

Not a very good  photo but hey I'm running out of searchable places! 
I believe this is R24 taken back in about 1940.....

Pete

[hb88banzai]

Interesting. I'm curious what info came with the photo as the specifics of the location don't quite seem to match Rochester Way.

Building in the background doesn't match and the Siren is on the wrong side - if proposed that it is a reverse shot, then the street should be behind the Box and not in front. Also, in the first photo the Siren's electrical Box isn't in view, but per the new photo it should have been.

[petewilson]

ahh luckily this one is still fresh in my head banzai...
the link to the page is   http://www.blackfenpastandpresent.moonfruit.com/#/war/4545602461



Pete

[Volpone]

Interesting. I'm curious what info came with the photo as the specifics of the location don't quite seem to match Rochester Way.

Building in the background doesn't match and the Siren is on the wrong side - if proposed that it is a reverse shot, then the street should be behind the Box and not in front. Also, in the first photo the Siren's electrical Box isn't in view, but per the new photo it should have been.

It's too bad there aren't any reference points that I can see in the photo. The door signs are too small to provide clues and I don't see any other writing, etc.  Is it possible that the negative got reversed and the print is backwards? 

It may be my imagination and the angle makes it difficult, but there may be a slight rise on the dashboard on the car that could be the top of a steering wheel on the left side. The woman in the dress is raising her left hand but it is a huge stretch to say that the photo is flipped because she's doing something with her left hand instead of her right.

[petewilson]

You may be right there...I've Reversed the photo around and I'm sure the "Police" in the sign is on the left now....

Pete

[hb88banzai]

Well, this is interesting.

A couple of points - the pole in the first photo I had thought was an A.R.W. Siren mast - I'm pretty sure it isn't. Size and profile of the pole are wrong.

Second, the high tension tower and buildings in the background don't match at all if you reverse out the photo, but they DO match perfectly with the original orientation. What's changed is the addition of the lamp or other pole to the left of the Box, and the rather radical change to the building behind the Box.

In looking more closely at the first photo of the topic, it's clear this is many years after the new photo (late 50s to mid 60s vs. circa 1940), so the iconic building that made it easy to identify that first photo just wasn't there, or it was added to and changed in the interim. The A.R.W. Siren mast and GPO box weren't visible either, as they were always on the other side, out of frame.

Here are the landmarks in the distance to the southeast of the Box Site that verifies this:

Original orientation of the new photo (also a nice blowup of the Box) --



Current street view from the new elevated roadway at an otherwise comparable POV (note the houses behind the new Co-Op building and the high tension towers behind them) --



I think this is confirmation of the anecdotal account referencing the new photo from the above link --

"An air raid siren stood at the Rochester Way/Westwood Lane junction. Do you remember being in the nearby cinema when it went off?

Children were not always as frightened as the adults by the war. Some even thought it was an exciting adventure! Did you collect salvage or shrapnel and explore bomb craters? Did you watch planes flying overhead or army convoys going down the Rochester Way?

Or did you dread interrupted sleep in a dark, damp shelter, not knowing where the next rocket would fall? Did you fear for family members who were in the armed services?"

[DoctorWho8]

In the blow up of the original orientation, the signs do say Police Public Call Box.  I know they are blurry blobs, but they seems to fit in size and location.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[Volpone]

Well there you go. I'm wrong again. Such is life.

[petewilson]

Ladies and Gentleman.....
Here's a more "Hi-Res" version of the Photograph I originally posted two and a half years ago!
This version courtesy of Gavin Rymill

[Dalekoracle]

its a lovely photo, and nice to see so much more detail.
Thanks for posting Pete
Mark

[hb88banzai]

Nice!

Here's a blowup of this higher res pic --



I nice shot of a middle period Mark 2. The back wall is on the right here with the open window (the only one that could open on that wall) - those on the Box's right wall (visible on the left here) were fixed, so couldn't be opened at all.

[lym]

Another image of this box: