First off, I have to make a sincere apology – I've had most of this information for awhile and reached most of these conclusions quite some time ago. In fact, I probably could have posted this as early as three years ago this month, so sorry about that. In my defense, or at least by way of mitigation, a couple things like photos have cropped up in the interim, so there's that. Still, sorry for the wait.
Note: if you don't want to wade through the thread of discovery and discussion below, my final conclusion is given in the following...
I will probably work all this up into a proper stand-alone Article on the subject in the near future (presumably here in the Police Box History sub-forum), but am presenting this here as a regular posting as it allows a more freewheeling approach and may illicit feedback that might help flesh out the story and/or correct any stupid mistakes in logic or evidence I may have made before committing things to a more formal format.
Anyway, as I'm sure anyone who's reading this will know, it's been a longstanding question and hotly debated topic as to where exactly the Crich Met Box originally stood when in service. Seems about the time of the major refurb in 2006 there was an explosion of interest and a lot of contradictory stories were promulgated on the subject – things like it was on Ealing Broadway, etc. Most compelling was the idea that it was in the Tooting area due to the placard inside the phone cupboard, which seems to be original to the inner cupboard door, saying the box's phone was connected to the Tooting Police Station. While there were many interpretations to this, the only one that fit the SOP of Met Boxes is that it was a Tooting sub-division box, but we've never had a picture of one as a Mark 4 so no real confirmation in principle or as a specific location.
Of interest is that most all of these ignored the one piece of hard evidence that was readily available on line; that contained in the original text for the Grade II Listing of the Crich Box, dated 14 April 1987 (only four years after its arrival in Crich):
“... This box was originally sited on the North Circular Road, London, and it was removed to its present site in 1983.”
That's about as far from Tooting as you can get, being on the other side of the Thames.
With so many contradictory stories and evidence, it seemed almost hopeless to think we could narrow it down to a range of actual Box locations, much less a single one.
Then, in summer of 2014, the intrepid duo of Mark Johnson and Matt Sanders took up the challenge of documenting the Crich Box in its current sate, and in the case of Matt with the specific intention of replicating it. Their first foray to the Tramway Museum resulted in some great photos, and also some indication from one of the people who had been there in 1983 that there was some info on the electrical board inside the Box that had been visible when it was originally brought to Crich and hooked up to their phone system. At first he seemed to remember that it had a name beginning in “F” - maybe “Finchley,” but later came back and said he thought it was “Fulham.”
Well, that led to a lot of speculation and back & forth in the comments of Matt's build diary. More research led to my noticing that some older photos of the unpainted bottom part of the multi-section electrical board showed some inscribed words partially visible at the top – I thought I made out “F. ... ITY DEPT” --
It didn't take much of a stretch to deduce “F. … ELECTRICITY DEPT”, but that still didn't seem to help much with what we had on hand at the time.
Well, when our dedicated researchers went back a month later they were armed with a screwdriver (sonic, of course) and took off the relay box to expose the rest of the inscription --
Before...
After...
It could now be clearly seen that it says “F.U.D.C ELECTRICITY DEPT.”
Much research followed.
First, there were very few districts listed in the Met List as sites for Boxes that started with the letter “F”:
Fairlop
Falconwood
Farleigh
Farnborough
Feltham
Finchley
Finsbury
Finsbury Park
Foots Cray
Forest Gate
Forest Hill
Forty Hill
Friern-Barnet
Fulham
Fulwell
Now, what about that “U.D.C.” after the “F.”? That stands for “Urban District Council”, a specific level of local governmental organization that took over from the old Parish system by act of Parliament in 1894 and generally lasted until 1974, with other levels above and below it. Only five of the above names were actually constituted as Urban District Councils at the time the Met Box system was started (per lists in wikipedia;
UDCs formed 1894-1895 and
UDCs formed 1896-1974):
Farnborough
Feltham
Finchley
Foots Cray
Friern-Barnet
Additional research dug up a document that related the history of London Area Power Supply companies ("London Area Power Supply: A Survey of London's Electric Lighting and Power Stations” by M.A.C. Horne - 2012).
It seems that early on the UK government made the determination (The Electric Lighting Act of 1882) that the most efficient way to encourage the development of electrical distribution was to favor its production through the “municipal enterprise” of local authorities, some of which were already suppling water, gas and tramways, This Act encouraged local councils in various ways to help them take the lead in the production of electricity at a local level, either directly or by giving them preference in buying up existing plants. Included in the above document is a listing of these early providers that took up the gauntlet (by the 50s, most had been bought out by larger, regional concerns). Of note is that around the time of the early Box placements there were only three local power generators that started with the letter “F” (also noting that generally these suppliers generated or distributed power only for their own districts) –
Foots Cray
Fulham
Finchley
Fulham was never a U.D.C., but rather it was an M.B.C. (Municipal Borough Council), so it can be eliminated. Further, though Foots Cray was a U.D.C., it was technically superseded by the Sidcup U.D.C. in 1921, and regardless the electrical company there was styled the “Foots Cray Electrical Supply Co.” (which was then taken over by the County of London Electrical Supply Co. in 1936). That leaves only Finchley, which actually did provide power as the Finchley Urban District Council.
For primary source confirmation I looked up the Met's own Pocket Directory for 1929 (MEPO 4/171 at the National Archives in Kew (
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/). On pages 109-115 of that document is a listing of electrical supply companies by Division (though some Divisions crossed into more than one area), and lists only three suppliers that begin with an “F” as follows:
Fulham Borough Council (in B Division)
Foots Cray Electricity Supply Co., Ltd. (in R Division)
Finchley Urban District Council (in S Division, though it also supplied power in parts of Y Division)
So, based on cross-referencing all of the above it looks like we have a winner for what the “F.U.D.C.” is referring to, specifically Finchley Urban District Council. But therein lies a small problem, which itself may lead to an interesting revelation.
The problem is that Finchley changed its governmental structure from being an Urban District Council to being a slightly more powerful Municipal Borough Council in 1933 (remaining so until 1965), while Crich is a Mark 4 Met Box, which from all evidence can date to no earlier than some time during WWII. So how is this possible when any electrical board provided by Finchley after 1933 (New Old Stock notwithstanding) should have been inscribed with F.M.B.C. rather than F.U.D.C.?
More contradictions, but all is not lost.
Back in July 2014, during their first trip to Crich, Mark and Matt were also able to obtain copies of some contemporaneous documents concerning the acquisition of the Crich Met Box. While nothing is definitive, taken in context with the above they're most illuminating.
We haven't been given permission to post scans of the original docs, but text excerpts should be fine.
They were originally considering acquisition of the Blackwall Tunnel North Box from the London Fire Brigade, but it's location and condition dissuaded them and they were steered instead to contact the Met directly.
In the notes on their visit to Hendon on 7th December 1982 is the following (
emphasis added by me):
“The MP have one spare telephone box stored in the open at Hendon, which they are prepared to donate to the TMS. The box is in reasonable state, with minor damage to the concrete shell particularly at the top around the illuminated glass panels. The interior has been stripped except for the electrical telephone connection panel. Some panes of glass are broken including the access to the telephone, but the frames are intact. The lamp housing on the top roof is missing but a spare exists and would be made available to us. The glass panels below the roof require some work to restore the blue background.”
It goes on to say that the Met would make available a set of drawings so that the Tramway Museum could reconstruct the interior, along with the painting specification.
Another document relating a summary of events leading to the donation and delivery (undated, but by internal reference from late 1983) has some additional nuggets:
“... We than had a phone call from the 'Outside Works” department of the Metropolitan Police themselves, who had recovered one from a site alongside the North Circular Road, and were thinking what to do with it. Just before Christmas last year I ventured out to Hendon where, on the site of part of the old airfield, there is now a large administrative complex; the entrances to all the sections are marked with blue Tardis-type boxes modified for their new duties.”
"I was greeted by the Principal Surveyor and one of his assistants, and we went to look at the 'exhibits' in the corner of the yard. The Tardis was a bit travel-stained, but I was assured that we could repair it quite easily with the concrete equivalent of Plastic Padding, and the missing parts could be provided from the remains of other boxes, including the flashing light on top.”
It goes on to relate how they weren't sure how they were going to transport it, but that the Met then volunteered to do so if the museum provided a concrete base to put it on. At first the Met seemed anxious to get things delivered, with some consternation at the delays in engineering things on the Museum's end, but that gradually their attitude shifted as they mysteriously seemed less bothered by the time scale. The reason for this became apparent when the Box was finally delivered in June 1983 as the Box had been completely renovated by the Met...
“... ; the surprise was to see a fully – restored Tardis complete with interior fittings and electrical work.”
These bits of data are invaluable. From them we see they were told the Box did indeed come from 'alongside' the North Circular Road. Further, that the electrical panel we've been looking at with the “F.U.D.C. ELECTRICITY DEPT” inscription is the ONLY original part of the Crich box's interior. All the rest, including the desk, cabinets and phone signs, where “donated” from another box at Hendon (or the remains of same).
This solves a lot of problems with some of our data. If we take the Met's statements as relayed at the time by the TMS at face value, then the electrical board is original to the Box and so the concrete shell did indeed come from somewhere on or very near the North Circular Road, while the interior came from somewhere else (by the internal signage, from a Box that once stood in the Tooting sub-division).
Of course that still doesn't solve the problem with the wording on that electrical panel being older than it should be for a Mark 4. Or does it?
Here's where a small leap in thinking might be necessary, but one that's got an internal logic to it.
When we look at all the Boxes in the area that was part of Finchley U.D.C., we see that most of them were S Division Boxes in the north and east (one of which was on the North Circular), so would have almost certainly been early Mark 3's and likely too new to require replacement (barring accident) until well into the era of the Mark 5's (50s and 60s). Three in the south and east were in Y Division, however (Y14, Y15 & Y26), one of which just happened to be on (later just off of) the North Circular Road at High Road Finchley – Y14 (the other two were well south of it).
Y14 was one of the original 21 Wood Green Mark 1 boxes that went active in January 1930. Further, while its original position (per a 1936 OS map) was on the southeast corner of the junction, outside the Green Man P.H., by about 1945 (per 1944-1945 RAF aerial photos in Google Earth) the intersection had been streamlined from its original awkward northward jog to a smooth transition “S” curve, possibly as a wartime measure to improve traffic flow. Where the Met Box and a GPO kiosk had been was now the middle of the roadway, so the Met Box was moved to the east side of the High Road, a little to the north of the new North Circular roadway.
Exactly this situation occurred about the same time with the Mark 2 at Ruxley Corner (P2), which it just so happens was also replaced by a Mark 4 in the process, so it's not at all a stretch that Y14 may well have also been replaced with a Mark 4 at the time of the move, or soon thereafter since most remaining Mark 1's were slated to be replaced by newer models by the early 50s.
Now, something has always bothered me about the Crich electrical board. It's too small, with obvious filler boards added in above the inscribed teak board to make up the difference. The Trench plans (drawn up at the Mark 2 to Mark 3 transition circa early 1935) specify a much larger single board and the brackets to support it. Glasgow boxes, which are patterned after Mark 2's, also have this larger board.
As a comparison:
Crich --
Trench --
Avoncroft --
Looking at the electrical requirements of the early boxes vs later ones, it becomes obvious that they needed less space, having only simple relays for the top lights and no other complex phone or signaling equipment. In fact there are notes in memos in the National Archives that the Mark 1 wooden boxes even had to have their telephone cabinets enlarged to accommodate the later PA 150MP telephones.
So, here's the leap – if, as we suspect, most Mark 4's were wartime or immediate postwar replacements for damaged, worn out or moved boxes, then considering the war and postwar supply restrictions it's not much of a stretch at all to think that perfectly usable teak wood would be recycled and transferred to the new Mark 4 from the original Mark 1 box it was replacing, which itself was erected when said board would have been marked “F.U.D.C. ELECTRICITY DEPT.”
To my mind, all of this seems to be logical and internally supported by the evidence. If so, then the question is answered – the outer concrete shell of the Crich Box is the resited Y14 in East Finchley.
Here's a photo from the 1950s (after the move) of the Green Man P.H., showing the GPO kiosk that was moved in the opposite direction to the Met Box --
This junction is also known as Glanfield's Corner, named after the garage and motorcycle showroom Glanfield Lawrence on the northwest corner.
Some map extracts:
1913 (before the building of the North Circular Road) --
1936 (showing the original Box Site and the awkward jog in the roadway) --
1952 (showing the Resite, likely done before the end of 1945) --
1969-1970 --
Finally, here's a photo I found looking north, dated as being from 1958 –
You can see signage for the Glanfield Lawrence garage and showroom on the left, and across the road, off in the background...
A bit blurry to be sure, but definitely not a Mark 5, while the roof looks too low to be a Mark 2 or Mark 3, and the sign lintels look too prominent to be a Mark 1.
So, if my observations and deductions are correct, this is quite probably a view of the Crich Box in-situ.
Metbox Catalog link for Y14 -
http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=8218.msg104297#msg104297
Thoughts?
Either would be immensely helpful. 
