Scotland Yard

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Image:New scotland yard.jpg
New Scotland Yard, London
Alternative meanings: Scotland Yard (band), Scotland Yard (board game)

New Scotland Yard or Scotland Yard, informally known as The Yard and NSY, is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for policing Greater London (excluding the City of London; see City of London Police). New Scotland Yard occupies a 20-story office block along Broadway and Victoria Street in Westminster, about 450 meters away from the Houses of Parliament. The famous rotating sign, which is often seen on live television statements and in films, is outside the main entrance on Broadway.

Founded on 29 September 1829, on a street off Whitehall, Scotland Yard was called "New Scotland Yard" when moved, in November 1890,[1] to the Victoria Embankment, beside the present-day Ministry of Defence. In 1967, New Scotland Yard moved to the present 20-story building at 10 Broadway.

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[edit] History

The name derives from the headquarters's original location on Great Scotland Yard, a street off Whitehall. The exact origins of this name are unknown, though popular explanations include: that it had once been the site of a diplomatic mission owned by the Kings of Scotland prior to the Union of England and Scotland; that the street was owned by a man called Scott during the Middle Ages; or that stagecoaches bound to Scotland once departed from the street.[2] By the 17th century, the street had become the site of a number of government buildings, with the architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren living there. From 1649–1651, the poet John Milton lived there during the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell's rule.

Scotland Yard was founded along with the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel, with the help of Francois-Eugene Vidocq. It opened for business as administrative headquarters of the Service on 29 September 1829, housing the two commissioners and their administrative staffs in a complex of about 50 rooms. It was not (and has never been) a police station in the usual sense, with each division of the police instead operating their own local stations.

The building's main entrance was at number 4 Whitehall, but a public office was installed at the rear of the building in Great Scotland Yard and so gave the building its name. The staff of Scotland Yard were responsible for internal security, public affairs, recruitment, correspondence and other administrative matters. Their duties grew steadily over time as the size of the Service increased.

Image:New-Scotland-Yard-Victorian-building-Big-Ben-1890.jpg
New Scotland Yard: 1890 Victorian building (centre), near Big Ben tower.

In November 1890, Scotland Yard moved to a new site along the Victoria Embankment,[1] overlooking the River Thames, just south of the current Ministry of Defence. By this time, the Metropolitan Police had grown from its initial 1,000 officers to about 13,000, necessitating more administrative staff and a bigger headquarters. Further increases in the size and responsibilities of the force required even more administrators, and in 1907 and 1940, New Scotland Yard was extended further. This complex is now a grade I listed building.

By the 1960s the requirements of modern technology and further increases in the size of the force meant that it had outgrown its Victoria Embankment headquarters. In 1967, New Scotland Yard moved to the present building at 10 Broadway, which was an existing office block acquired under a long-term lease. The name transferred with it and the first New Scotland Yard is now called the Norman Shaw (North) building. Part of it is now used as the Headquarters for the Metropolitan Police's Territorial Policing department.

The original Scotland Yard was taken over by the British Army after the police moved out. Rebuilt, it became an Army recruiting office and Royal Military Police headquarters, complete with cells in the basement. It was bombed by the Provisional IRA in 1973, killing one person. It subsequently became the Ministry of Defence Library, a role which it retained until 2004. Today, the only surviving element of the original Scotland Yard is a Metropolitan Police stables next door at 7 Great Scotland Yard.

Scotland Yard's crime database is called Home Office Large Major Enquiry System and the acronym is HOLMES. As well, the training program is called "Elementary" in honour of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Scotland Yard's telephone number was originally Whitehall 1212. The majority of London area police stations, as well as Scotland Yard itself, still have 1212 as their last four digits.

[edit] Popular culture

Image:Scotland yard detective stories 193012.jpg
Scotland Yard Detective Stories magazine, issue 12, 1930

Scotland Yard has become internationally famous as a symbol of policing, and detectives from Scotland Yard feature in many works of crime fiction. They were frequent allies — and sometimes antagonists — of Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous stories (see, for instance, Inspector Lestrade). It is also referenced to in Around the World in Eighty Days.

Many novelists have adopted fictional Scotland Yard detectives as the heroes or heroines of their stories. John Creasey's stories featuring George Gideon are amongst the earliest police procedurals. Commander Adam Dalgliesh, created by P. D. James, and Inspector Richard Jury, created by Martha Grimes are notable recent examples. A somewhat more improbable example is Baroness Orczy's aristocratic female Scotland Yard detective Molly Robertson-Kirk, aka Lady Molly of Scotland Yard.

Agatha Christie's numerous mystery novels often referenced Scotland Yard, most notably in her Poirot series. The Belgian detective of the same name was often accompanied (and sometimes thwarted) by a hard-working yet not-as-effective Chief Inspector Japp (played in the TV series by Philip Jackson).

In children's fiction, the Time Machine series had one title about Scotland Yard (#17 - Scotland Yard Detective), in which the mystery is the rescue of an Indian prince.

During the 1930s, there was a short-lived pulp magazine called variously Scotland Yard, Scotland Yard Detective Stories or Scotland Yard International Detective, which, despite the name, concentrated more on lurid crime stories set in the United States rather than having anything to do with the Metropolitan Police.

Scotland Yard was the name of a series of cinema second features made between 1953 and 1961. Introduced by Edgar Lustgarten, each episode featured a dramatised reconstruction of a 'true crime' story. Filmed at Merton Park Studios, many of the episodes featured Russell Napier as Inspector Duggan. The series was succeeded by The Scales of Justice, which dealt with a similar theme. In the comedy series Batman, the caped crusaders in England meet members of "Ireland Yard"- clearly a spoof of Scotland Yard.

Scotland Yard is the name of a Scottish rap collective. They have released an E.P. entitled The Scotland Yard E.P., produced by Seanie Bee.

Scotland Yard is the division that a youthful Gatse Becker was handpicked from to join the Policenauts squad in Hideo Kojima's Japanese cyberpunk adventure game.

Scotland Yard is the basis of a board game by German company Ravensburger.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "Metropolitan Police" (history), Thomas Twiglet, 2005-10-23, Tiscali.co.uk webpage: Tiscali-UK-MetPol.
  2. ^ http://www.met.police.uk/history/definition.htm

[edit] External links



Coordinates: 51°29′55″N, 0°07′59″Wcs:Scotland Yard da:Scotland Yard de:New Scotland Yard es:Scotland Yard eo:Scotland Yard fa:اسکاتلندیارد fr:Scotland Yard hr:Scotland Yard id:Scotland Yard it:Scotland Yard he:סקוטלנד יארד ka:სკოტლანდ იარდი nl:Scotland Yard ja:スコットランドヤード no:New Scotland Yard nn:Scotland Yard pl:Scotland Yard pt:Scotland Yard ru:Скотланд-Ярд simple:Scotland Yard sk:New Scotland Yard fi:Scotland Yard sv:Scotland Yard zh:蘇格蘭場

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