Mar 29, 2024, 04:50 am

News:

New, New TardisBuilders!


Found - Two Mark 5 Police Boxes

Started by starcross, Feb 26, 2010, 07:09 pm

Previous topic - Next topic

starcross

Feb 26, 2010, 07:09 pm Last Edit: Mar 08, 2020, 03:58 am by starcross
Edit: This used to say Mark 3s but we've discovered a bit more information since then and its been reclassified.

I just stumbled across 10 previously unknown Mark 3 Police Boxes for sale no less.
The only known surviving Mark 3 Police box until now was the box at the Hendon Police Training Facility.
I can only wonder where ten of these sat hidden until now?  

These Boxes are listed both on their website Bygones Reclamation and on Ebay.
Although for a buy-it-now they would like 15,000 Pounds, or an offer.  

Although much to rich for my pockets, I'd love to see one of these end up in a museum like Avoncroft or one of the other police museums. It would be nice to have one of these accessible to the public. After all not everyone can wander over to the one in Hendon.

I'd love to get accurate dimensional details for this,
but approx Dimensions are listed as:
Height: 110" inches (above ground level)
Square: 52" inches

For visual reference the Hendon Box is on the Left, and the newly discovered boxes on the right.

4390503178_db7f4dc18e.jpg 4389735339_d4d39b83f1.jpg

chriskingbees

Goodness gracious! This is almost unbelievable, but the evidence is there. £15,000 is big money though

KB

peted


Scarfwearer

Where indeed?
Blimey! Amazing! I may even have to resort to Crikey!
It gives one hope that there may be more out there in reclamation yards or back gardens.

Crispin

peted

QuoteThe only known surviving Mark 3 Police box until now was the box at the Hendon Police Training Facility.
I can only wonder where ten of these sat hidden until now? 


Not entirely true - there is the unpainted mk3 at Cross Ness waterworks that I found and passed onto Ward for restoration. I'm not sure whether it ever got finished - there was alot of red tape with Thames Water because it's on their land.

peted

Found a snap of Cross Ness. I also have, somewhere, a bad photocopied photo of a load of mark 3s in a scrap yard in Kent. Maybe these are from then?

Crossness.jpg

Notice the phone panel is either very high, or there isn't one and that's a boarded window!

starcross

"I found and passed onto Ward for restoration."
Do you mean Ward Westwater of the Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust?

"Not entirely true"
I love when this happens, Its great finding new information. I always say Know Surviving for just that reason. I've always taken that as meaning it can be confirmed in the public domain. If I can't find at least one recent mention on the internet it gets sorted into the Lost pile until it can be confirmed as surviving by a news article, a forum post, a conversation with an individual, or even a google streetview. There is always someone out there with something new to add to the pool of knowledge, the trouble is finding them.

I think this might be the Crossness Box from the other angle, the backgrounds match. I always assumed this was long since removed. No date for the photos was ever mentioned.
4394200303_7554f54cc2_o.jpg

And this is probably the scrap yard in Kent, taken from the Tardis Library ages ago. Its clearly a Mark 3, but so pixilated its hard to figure out its a scrap yard and not just on a street somewhere.
4394967106_ddc2245374_o.gif

There are a few more photos of Mark 3s about probably all from the Tardis Library making them likely leads from the 1990s. Again since no has ever mentioned these outside the photos I classified them as Lost.   
4395006884_b3bf6a62a4_o.jpg4390502952_99709d0c81_m.jpg4389735145_ec9c0463b3_m.jpg

Perhaps one of the these is part of the ten in the reclamation yard?

peted

They're all my pictures. :) I gave them all to the TARDIS library years ago, when I stopped updating the original Police Box website. I've worked with Ward on and off for many years on Police Box rescue projects.
I sent Ward a mesg on facebook this morning about the auction, I'd be interested to see if he knew about them. We tried to save another box last year, a wooden one, but very tardis like. Sadly she was too far gone, but I'll post some pics a little later of it before it was demolished. Lots of the hardware was save tho, including beacon and signage, plus the original police desk from inside.

TG

Thanks to KB for alerting me to this. The yard is about five minutes away from where I live and the boxes are in view from the road.
I parked up to have a look as the yard was open and they are wonderful! I didn''t have my camera with me but I'll go back again.
The concrete looks in good nick, one still had the wooden door (with a st John badge!). They look like they've been completely covered in ivy for a long time. All the signs and the lamp/fresnel look great and I was able to go up and have a good look and to touch.
I want one :)
What a find.

Thanks for posting starcross, and thanks KB

starcross

"one still had the wooden door with a st John badge!"
That in itself is a find worth its weight in gold. There have been a few topics discussing the badge, but I don't think anyone has ever found a real one.

Offer to buy just the badge see if they'll go for it.
If nothing else photograph it to the nines and get a diameter measurement. At least then it will be good reference for creating replicas especially since the new Tardis has one on the door itself.


"We tried to save another box last year"
Thats great, I didn't know there was even a box to save. At least you've managed to save some of the important bits. I can't wait to get a look at your photos. I'd love to be able to take part in something like that myself.

I'm a Canadian who happened across the Post in Piccadilly Circus while on holiday in 2007. I've been Researching and creating blueprints for the Police Posts ever since in the hopes of creating a replica. I started branching out in 2009 with my Lost & Found. I've been slowly confirming survivors and mapping their locations, creating Blueprints to make 3D models.

Its because of this I'm always keen to hear about new finds and get new information. Anything to make my information and models more accurate.

Teppic

Feb 28, 2010, 07:42 pm #10 Last Edit: Feb 28, 2010, 07:51 pm by teppic
Quote from: pete d on Feb 27, 2010, 09:36 pm
and where the hell have they been hiding??? It says he's got 10!!!
But at 15k, I think the decimal point is in the wrong place. :(

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORIGINAL-MK-3-METROPOLITAN-POLICE-PUBLIC-CALL-BOX_W0QQitemZ380210476686QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Antiques_Architecural_RL?hash=item58864f768e

Pete D


I notice the listing has now been corrected to show that there are 2 available, instead of 10. I was starting to wonder why there weren't any pictures of the other 8...

peted

Mar 01, 2010, 12:46 am #11 Last Edit: Apr 30, 2015, 06:08 am by hb88banzai
Crispin has now moved my Ward related story of another Police Box type to another thread called 'West Midlands Police Box' to a thread in it's own right. I'll fill in the details over there. :)

EDIT: A link to the referenced Topic -- http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=1433.0 -- hb88banzai

starcross

We should probably change the main topic to Two instead of Ten as it seems a bit misleading now.

All this interest over the new Mark 3s seems like a good time to roll my mock up of a Mark 3 Blueprint.
I've had this sitting idle for a while now, but it seems like it might be useful sooner or later.

As with all my Blueprints I didn't have any measurements to go on, so the Police Officer is there for scale.
This is based on the Hendon Mark 3 Metropolitan Police Box.
I have it roughly proportioned on the known dimensions of the Mark 2,
but I used photographs to attempt to get a close approximation.

As always If you know more about them or have more accurate measurements please share.
I always like to add accuracy to these sorts of projects.

Larger Image Here.
4398627080_f9b0907db6_b.jpg

Scarfwearer

The title of a topic is just the subject of the first post, so if you started it, you can go back and change it by modifying the first post.

Crispin

whitestar2010

I have to tell you ladies and gents that I'm jolly excited about this find! I was only thinking about the Crossness box the other week (as you do) and wondered what became of it. I have to say now that if I had the cash one of those beauties would be mine - a more than fair price I'd say given how complete they appear - sadly just a dream for me though :O(

I would so love for someone (Ward pretty please) to buy of these boxes and restore it to its former glory and make it available for public view. As far as I know the box at Hendon is off bounds to the public and one of these boxes really should be in a museum somewhere. This design has always been a real favourite of mine ever since I saw it on Pete's old site (thank you Pete).

And what about the St. Johns sign - wow a hugely important find I'd say - please can somebody local get down there and measure/photograph for posterity.