South Shields, police box

HER Number

16598

District

Sunderland

Site Name

South Shields, police box

Place

South Shields

Map Sheet

NZ36NE

Class

Communications

Site Type: Broad

Telecommunication Structure

Site Type: Specific

Police Box

General Period

20TH CENTURY

Specific Period

Mid 20th Century 1933 to 1966

Form of Evidence

Documentary Evidence

Description

From 1935 a new type of police box was introduced in Sunderland and South Shields. These were similar to the Scarborough 'helter skelter' shaped boxes. The first ones were painted in the local Corporation colours (green and red) but later ones were painted light blue and cream.

Easting

436000

Northing

567000

Grid Reference

NZ436000567000

Sources

Petra Caroline [Henderson]'s Police and Police Boxes Virtual Telephone Museum, Sunderland Borough Police Box (1920) and Sunderland and South Shields Police Box 1935, www.henderson-tele.com/police/boxes/bytown2.html; photo of early police box in South Shields on www.northeastlifemag.co.uk/out-about/criminal_injustice_in_the_north_east_life; Immanuel Burton, 2006, A Brief History of the Police Box, November 2006 newsletter of the Construction History Society, www.policeboxes.com; Decentralization and the Police Box System by Frederick James Crawley, Chief Constable of Newcastle upon Tyne, The Police Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, January 1928; Peter Darrington, 2005, A History of the British Police Telephone Kiosk