Tag:historic=police_call_box

A police call box is a type of telephone kiosk historically used by the police in the UK (and elsewhere?).

The are much bigger than public telephone boxes (amenity=telephone) and effectively functioned as miniature police stations. They are no longer used for their original purpose, and many have been converted into takeaway cafés, ticket offices and other uses.

How to map

Draw a way and tag it building=kiosk historic=police_call_box.

If it is in use, place a node inside, such as amenity=cafe with relevant tags such as takeaway=only and wheelchair=yes.

By city

The below links contain lists of alleged locations but a survey (or visit in Mapillary or similar street-level imagery website) would be required to confirm their existence, both for licensing reasons and because the lists may be out of date.

Edinburgh

This example in Edinburgh has seen better days.

There are dozens of police call boxes in Edinburgh. These have the historic=police_call_box tag but are still missing other details. Since many have been sold and are now in private ownership, they sometimes disappear and pop up in other locations, so consider using check_date=*.

If it’s of the Edinburgh design, which is probably the case for all police call boxes in Edinburgh (?), a more complete tagging might look like the following (the code block can be copied into JOSM):

 architect = Ebenezer MacRae
 building = kiosk
 building:material = iron
 building:levels = 1
 height = 2.6
 historic = police_call_box
 roof:height = 0.3
 roof:levels = 0
 roof:orientation = along
 roof:shape = gabled

Then you could add:

 building:colour =
 roof:colour =
 check_date = 

There may also be replicas around that are made of wood.

External links

• https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/living-in-edinburgh/edinburgh-police-boxes/ Article with full list of original locations

Glasgow

A police call box in Glasgow

There are a handful of police call boxes left in Glasgow. These have not all been mapped yet.

External links

• https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~gbarr/tardis/
• https://www.glasgowworld.com/lifestyle/tardis-police-boxes-of-glasgow-why-are-there-so-many-police-boxes-left-in-glasgow-doctor-who-4202515

Elsewhere in the UK

Police call box as a folly at Wetherby Police Station

A number of potential locations are listed below.

• http://www.policeboxes.co.uk/police-boxes-today.html

US

According to the Wikipedia article, there used to be similar police call boxes in the US. Maybe some of these still exist and are worth mapping?

More examples

• 

  Earl's Court, London

• 

  Crich Tramway Village

See also the gallery in the Wikipedia article.

External links

• Police box on Wikipedia