Somerton TARDIS
The Somerton TARDIS is a police box on Acacia Avenue/Somerton Crescent off Chepstow Road in the Somerton area of Newport, South Wales. The police box is the only remaining one of four that were in Newport and it is a Grade II listed building. Police boxes were deployed in the UK as a police telephone communications point prior to public and mobile phones being widely available. The Somerton police box has a lamp fixing on top which would flash to indicate an incoming call.
The first UK police boxes were deployed in 1888 with the familiar 'TARDIS' shape first appearing in 1929. UK Police discontinued use of such boxes by 1969.
The Somerton police box became known in Newport as the TARDIS as a reference to the television series Doctor Who, in which the Doctor's time machine appears as a police box due to its chameleon circuit being stuck.[1] During the 1980s local residents painted a long multi-coloured scarf on the blue police box as worn by the fourth Doctor, played by actor Tom Baker 1974–1981.
The earliest UK police boxes were of wooden construction but the Somerton box is a concrete construction. Consequently, it deteriorated over the years, largely due to concrete cancer.[2] In January 2010 a grant of £10,500 was allocated by Cadw to restore the structure as a recognition of its importance as a local landmark.[3]
References
External links
- A famous blue police box is saved from destruction by Doctor Who fans The Times
- Wales "Tardis" given £10,000 News Wales
- Kiosk Korner Police Box page – shows a photo of the Somerton TARDIS
Coordinates: 51°35′18″N 2°57′34″W / 51.58828°N 2.95935°W