Bradford Police Box

[mikey]

A couple of pictures of Bradford's boxes first installed in 1928. 99 where initially built by L. Mitchell and Company, Bradford at a cost of £2399.

According to a newspaper report in April 1928 the boxes where equipped with a telephone, desk and motorcycle accommodation. Which might explain the large size of the Town Gate box. The lamp on top was red

According to G Smith in his book Bradford Police some of the boxes contained a sink and facilities to heat food. He also says Bradford had 101 boxes, however a 1935 article about the boxes being fitted with speaker phones put the number at 106.





Town gate idle



Leeds Road

[mikey]

Another Bradford box here just peeping into the shot. Bradford's boxes where painted red, as where boxes in Manchester, Derby, Huddersfield and Glasgow. With Stoke, Newport, Aberdeen and Dundee sporting a lighter colours with a red trim.

With Newcastle, Sheffield and South Shields being Green and Leicestershire's in cream. This leads me to believe the most common colour for regional boxes was likely (at least initially) red. With the change to blue starting to come in in the 50s. A 1953 article about Dundee's boxes stated that they where being repainted blue as it was now recognised as the official colour of the police.

[mikey]

Couple more pics of Bradford boxes