Blackwall Tunnel North Box (later Fire Brigade Box)

[lorisarvendu]

Back in the 70s I took some photos of the red Fire Brigade box above the Blackwall Tunnel (north of the river).  They're not great, as they were done on an old 126 camera, but here they are:

http://www.spacewarp.co.uk/who/BlackwallNorthBox.htm

Edit: Amended to lay the ghost of the "Mile End Box"

[lorisarvendu]

I've just updated the "MILE END BOX PIX" section on http://www.spacewarp.co.uk.

No new pictures I'm afraid (unless you have some and want to send them to me   ), but I have managed to make sense of which side of the box is in which picture.  And it turns out one of the photos was of the side that overlooks the tunnel.

PS Mods, why am I now Joan Collins?

[lorisarvendu]

Actually, it wasn't demolished...


http://spacewarp.co.uk/Firebox-ani.gif


Thanks to my mate Mike.  

[anita]

Nicely done!

[chriskingbees]

They're brilliant Dave, many, many thanks.
GLEN! Have you seen these?
KB

[kiwidoc]

OOohhhh!  Police Box-y goodness

[steals them all, mwah ha ha ha haaaaaa]


{for good only...}


Thanks for sharing Dave, brilliant!

There're brilliant Dave, many, many thanks.
GLEN! Have you seen these?
KB

[lorisarvendu]

OOohhhh!  Police Box-y goodness

[steals them all, mwah ha ha ha haaaaaa]


{for good only...}


Thanks for sharing Dave, brilliant!

Glad you liked them.  Nice to know I've been hanging onto these 10 snaps for decades and they've finally come into their own.  As I say on the page, public domain, steal them freely.

Soon as I've finished my model I'm so going to do a "Blackwall Box" version, lol.  I particularly like the black roof and the red/white checkered lamp (how will I do that??).

[atomicgraph]

thanks for sharing!!! i love these old box photo threads

[lorisarvendu]

I've got a few of the old Hendon box from about the same time, along with a rather stoop-shouldered young copper on guard duty.  I'll try and dig them out.  Very strange - no lamp and it's dark brown.

Oh and now I think about it, I've got a few of the old Longleat exhibition as well, full of Wirrn, Revenge Cybermen, and a console that you weren't allowed to touch.  Actually, anyone remember the console from the Science Museum way back then?  You were allowed to touch that one, pull levers and the like.  Can't remember if the rotor went up and down or not.

[Teppic]

Back in the 70s I took some photos of the red Fire Brigade box above the Blackwall Tunnel (north of the river).  They're not great, as they were done on an old 126 camera, but here they are:

http://www.spacewarp.co.uk/MileEndBox.htm

Fantastic! I remember going past this one on the way to my nan's in the 70's, although I don't recall the lamp having a checkerboard pattern on it, but the evidence is there to see.

I don't suppose you have any pictures of the box that was on the Blackwall Tunnel approach road on the south side of the river? From memory it was usually painted a much brighter red, and for a long time had a door without any panelling on it to replace the original that was ripped off by vandals. Then one day I was driven past it and a proper pannelled door was back on it. I also remember that whwnever I went past it it never had a lamp.

Then one day, like the one on the north side, it was gone.

[lorisarvendu]

Just so these are saved in the forum. My pictures of the North Blackwall Tunnel box (aka "The Mile End Box") after painting by the Fire Brigade, and before demolition. The following is the text and photos from my web page on http://www.spacewarp.co.uk/who/BlackwallNorthBox.htm

This box was situated along the East India Dock Road in London, overlooking the entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel.  I'm not certain of the exact year when I took them, but it was probably mid to late '70s because when my mate saw one of the pictures he pointed out that there was Sarah Jane out for a walk! I hereby place these pictures in the public domain, so feel free to copy and use them as you will.


Approaching the West face...my first view of the box. Even at this distance you can see the slight darkness of the windows, indicating frames.


South face of box.  Note "Fire Brigade Control" roof sign, but no window frames.


More South face of box.


Closeup view of South face, taken from top of wall.  To the left is a sheer drop down to the Blackwall Tunnel!


Now a closeup of the East face.  I am now standing more or less where that little girl was in the previous picture.  This is actually the "front" of the box, and you can see the outline around the door (the only wooden part of the structure, the rest is concrete.)  Again there are no window frames, the windows having been replaced by sheet metal (showing considerable rust).


Another closeup of the South face.  The concrete under the sign is quite chipped, but the window "panels" appear to have escaped rust.  Maybe they're not metal, like the ones on the East face?


Now a closeup of the East face.  The sign box is blank on this side.


Lower half of the East face.  You can plainly see that this was the door in (you can see the holes where the door handle and lock were).  Strangely the panels appear to have been filled in, presumably to make the door more resistant to vandalism.  


Stepping back from the East face for an all-in shot.


Took me a while to figure out this one.  Presumably I took it while standing against the railing in the previous shot.  This appears to be the North face on the left and the West face on the right.  The sign box is blank on the West face (which overlooks the Blackwall Tunnel), but filled in on the North face.  The West face is the only part of the box with the original window frames in, and probably the one that escaped the most vandalism (on account of it directly overlooking the Tunnel).

So there you go.  The East face was the door.  The North and South faces had "Fire Brigade Control" in the sign boxes, whilst the West and East facing signs were blank.  And the West face still had the window frames.  

Sadly these photos are probably all that remains of these unique variants of the Metropolitan Police Box, as the Mile End Box (and it's twin on the Tunnel entrance south of the Thames) were demolished in the 1980s.

EDIT: I do of course still have the original photographs, and have just rescanned them to a higher resolution (approx 1040x1040). You can view (and download) them from the above page.

[domvar]

Was just trying to position it on Google Street view absolutely nothing from these pics is still there

[Dalekoracle]

The box was here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.511504,-0.007532&spn=0.000007,0.005284&t=h&layer=c&cbll=51.511499,-0.007431&panoid=YDc_46Pp8PXyUn1_t9pBqA&cbp=12,181.79,,0,7.31&z=18
Just where all those grey boxes are behind the traffic light and next to the steps (and railings) down.

Looking north gives us this view of the council towerblocks
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.511497,-0.007768&spn=0.000007,0.005284&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.511506,-0.0076&panoid=XytGShVVp7_jwNYLdytUJw&cbp=12,352.56,,0,5.39

Its East India Dock Road. The roundabout over the Blackwall Approach and the A13 interchange.

The area has been extensively redeveloped with most of the low rise shops and houses getting demolished in the 90's.

In this aerial view its the lower right side of the junction You can see the steps clearly.
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.51137,-0.007347&spn=0.000873,0.002642&t=h&z=19

Thats my belief as to where it was. I go past here twice daily on average! Its funny because I always thought the box was down by Navel Row - where the Blackwall Tunnel actually starts and dissappears below ground... I'd not actually considered it was on the main A13 junction until 20 minutes ago! Now looking at Google Maps... "oh, it was there!!".



Mark D

PS: I still think it should be renamed "the Blackwall Tunnel North Box" LOL! I mean... when we come up with pictures of a box in Mile End, what shall we call it? hehehe

[domvar]

Argh how am I going  to put this one back with all those boxes in the way. :-D

[lorisarvendu]

Yes you're right, that's exactly where it was, on the A13 above the tunnel, unlike at the other end where it's actually on the approach road.  



That's the wall where the box was against, and if you looked over you could see the tunnel road below.  When I visited the box I first got off the bus about a hundred yards to the west of here (to the right of the Google photo) and walked back (see my first picture).  Unfortunately you can't see that exact shot on Google Street View because for some reason they haven't "Googleviewed" that section of A13 to the immediate west.  From what I can remember those steps to the left weren't there then, but the railing still is.


When you know yourself exactly where a box was, you kind of forget that everyone else doesn't!  I also didn't realised how much redevelopment had changed the area.

Argh how am I going  to put this one back with all those boxes in the way. :-D

[Jaws] Looks like you're going to need a bigger map! [/Jaws]