Britain’s Smallest Police Station. Did you know that located rather surreptitiously at the south-east corner of Trafalgar Square is a rather peculiar and often overlooked world record holder; Britain’s Smallest Police Station. Apparently this tiny box can accommodate up to two prisoners at a time, although its main purpose was to hold a single police officer…think of it as a 1920’s CCTV camera!
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Built in 1926 so that the Metropolitan Police could keep an eye on the more troublesome demonstrators, the story behind its construction is also a rather secretive. At the end of World War I, a temporary police box just outside of the Trafalgar
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Square tube station was due to be renovated and made more permanent. However, due to public objections this was scrapped and instead it was decided to build a less “objectionable” police box. The venue? Inside an ornamental light fitting…
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Once the light fitting was hollowed out, it was then installed with a set of narrow windows in order to provide a vista across the main square. Also installed was a direct phone line back to Scotland Yard in case reinforcements were needed in times of trouble. In fact, whenever the police phone was picked up, the ornamental light fitting at the top of the box started to flash, alerting any nearby officers on duty that trouble was near.
Today the box is no longer used by the Police and is instead used as a broom cupboard for Westminster Council cleaners!
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