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"Original model" photo from 1972

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paul hayes

New member
Apologies if this has been posted here before - I did try having a search but couldn't see that it had.

I was just having a browse for something on the BNA and came across this piece from an October 1972 edition of the Kensington Post.

It shows one Chief Superintendent James Hargadon with what the piece speculates is "the orginal model for the old police boxes", which he had apparently salvaged from the police training school at Peel House when it was being cleared out in 1968.

I have no idea of course whether any of that information is accurate, but I thought it might be of interest, anyway.

Model box.png
 
Wow, that's amazing!

The picture's dark, but it definitely seems like it could be an original preliminary model to me. It definitely has the roof line of a Mark 1. The windows seem longer than the panels, too, like Verdun Road (https://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=8310), but even moreso - almost like a Bristol box. Seems like there was a lot of trial and error for the window size. Still looks to have the mount design of the original lamp too.

The top signs and presence of the flat base for a lamp are a bit anachronistic (the earliest Mark 1s had an extruded pierced sign that just said "POLICE", and the roofs of the boxes came to a pyramidal peak until the fresnel lamps were fitted), but those could have potentially been added at a later date?

Regardless, this is a really interesting find. I wonder if this model still exists somewhere.
 
Glad it's of interest and was worth posting!

The piece does say that he'd restored it, so Hargadon could perhaps have done so based on the designs with which he was more familiar?
 
The side of the box shows what looks more like the original top sign area. A restoration would also explain the (apparently so  common even Who did it for Jackie Lane's photoshoot) mistake of 3x3 window panes on the front doors.
 
I don't think it's a 3x3 window panel, I think it's just a case of there being no glass in the windows so you can see the other side.
 
lym said:
I don't think it's a 3x3 window panel, I think it's just a case of there being no glass in the windows so you can see the other side.
Click to expand...
You could be right - That and the extra-tall windows is making it look more 'off' than it is.
 
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