New Scotland Yard (
NSY) is the
headquartersHeadquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The corporate headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
of the
Metropolitan Police ServiceThe Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for policing within Greater London, excluding the 'square mile' of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police....
, responsible for
law enforcementIn North American English, a Law enforcement agency is an organisation that enforces the law.Outside North America, such organisations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police, others have other names In North American English, a Law enforcement agency...
within
Greater LondonGreater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The administrative area was officially created in 1965 and covers the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and thirty two London boroughs...
, excluding the
City districtThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, which is covered by the
City of London PoliceThe City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle and Inner Temple...
.
The current New Scotland Yard building is located in
WestminsterThe City of Westminster is a borough of London with city status. It is located west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, and forms part of Inner London and the bulk of London's central area....
. Administrative functions are based at the
Empress State BuildingThe Empress State Building is a skyscraper in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was built in 1961 and was tall with 28 floors. It was renovated in 2003 to a design by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Three floors and were added to its height...
, and communication handling at the three
MetcallThe Central Communications Command is the largest Operational Command Unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is responsible for communications within the Metropolitan Police and between the police and the public & other forces, taking over from a number of smaller communications...
complexes, rather than Scotland Yard.
History
The name of the headquarters is derived from its original location on
Great Scotland YardGreat Scotland Yard is a London street in the St. James's district of Westminster. It connects Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall. It serves as the basis of the name of Scotland Yard....
, a street within
WhitehallWhitehall is a road in Westminster in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards traditional Charing Cross, now at the southern end of Trafalgar Square and marked by the statue of Charles I, which is often regarded as the heart of London...
. The exact origins of the name are unknown, but one explanation is that the site had once been used as a
diplomatic missionA diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organization present in another state to represent the sending state/organization in the receiving state...
owned by the Kings of Scotland, prior to the
1707 UnionThe Acts of Union were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England to put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the...
of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
; another being that the street was owned by a man called Scott during the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, or that
stagecoachA stagecoach is a type of four-wheeled closed coach for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach...
es bound for Scotland once departed from the street.
By the 17th century, the street had become a site of government buildings, with the architects
Inigo JonesInigo Jones is regarded as the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
and
Christopher WrenSir Christopher Wren was one of the best known and highest acclaimed English architects in history,...
living there. From 1649–1651, the poet
John MiltonJohn Milton was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
lived there during the
Commonwealth of EnglandThe Commonwealth of England, from 1653-1659 the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was the republican government which ruled first England and Wales, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Some would call this government a "crowned" republican government...
under
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
's rule.
The Metropolitan Police was formed by
Home SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Sir Robert PeelSir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
with the implementation of the
Metropolitan Police ActThe Metropolitan Police Act 1829 was an Act of Parliament introduced by Sir Robert Peel and passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act established the Metropolitan Police of London , replacing the previously disorganized system of parish constables and watchmen...
, passed by Parliament in 1829. Sir Robert Peel selected the original Scotland Yard for the new police headquarters, with the help of Eugène-François Vidocq. By 1829 the building was occupied by police, housing the first two
CommissionersThe Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...
,
Sir Charles RowanLieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Rowan KCB was an officer in the British Army, serving in the Peninsular War and Waterloo and the joint first Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the London Metropolitan Police....
and
Sir Richard MayneSir Richard Mayne KCB was a barrister and the joint first Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the London Metropolitan Police...
. The two Commissioners, along with various
police officerA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force. Police officers are generally responsible for apprehending criminals, maintaining public order, and preventing and detecting crimes...
s and staff, occupied 4 Whitehall Place with one entrance being used as a police station, leading to the location being known as "Scotland Yard" after its address.
Over time, the size of the service increased, leading to the original site of the headquarters becoming inadequate. A new location on the
Victoria EmbankmentThe Victoria Embankment, is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in London. Victoria Embankment extends from the City of Westminster into the City of London....
, overlooking the
River ThamesThe River Thames is a major river flowing through southern England. While best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows through several other towns and cities, including Oxford, Reading and Windsor....
, south of what is now known as the
Ministry of DefenceThe Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
HQ, was in the process of being constructed during 1888. During construction, workers discovered the dismembered torso of a female, believed to have been a victim of the Whitechapel murders, alleged to have been perpetrated by "
Jack the RipperJack the Ripper was a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around Whitechapel, London, in late 1888. The name originated in a letter by someone claiming to be the murderer that was sent to the London Central News Agency and...
"; to this day the case remains unsolved. By 1890 construction was completed, and moved to its new location. 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.
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.
The original Scotland Yard was taken over by the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
after the Metropolitan Police moved out. Rebuilt, it became an Army recruitment office and
Royal Military PoliceThe Royal Military Police is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of service personnel and providing a military police presence on service property, operations and exercises. Its members are generally known as Redcaps because they wear red-topped peaked caps or red berets...
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 the Metropolitan Police stables next door, at 7 Great Scotland Yard.
The Metropolitan Police's crime database is housed at New Scotland Yard. This uses a national IT system developed for major crime enquiries by all UK forces, called
Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, more commonly referred to by its acronym,
HOLMESHolmes is a surname, and may refer to many people. Since "holm" is a Scandinavian word meaning "a small island", people bearing the name might either have a Scandinavian ancestry or have a surname derived from a place which gained its name from a Scandinavian presence at some past time Holmes is a...
. In addition, the training program is called "Elementary" in honour of the great fictional detective
Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
.
A number of security measures were added to New Scotland Yard's exterior during the 2000s, including concrete barriers in front of ground-level windows, as a countermeasure against
car bombA car bomb is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle, people near the blast site, or to damage buildings or other property...
ing. This was accompanied by a concrete wall around the entrance to the building, and the entrance itself having a covered walkway from the street to the building. Armed officers from the
Diplomatic Protection GroupThe Diplomatic Protection Group is a Central Operations branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service. The unit's main purpose is to provide specialist protection for diplomatic residencies in London, such as embassies, high commissions and consular sections...
were assigned to patrol the exterior of the building along with Security Staff.
The senior management team is based at New Scotland Yard, who oversee the service.
On 30 May 1884, during the
FenianThe Fenians, both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish nationalist...
bombing campaign of 1883 to 1885, an anonymous letter was sent threatening to bomb Scotland Yard and all other
governmentHer Majesty's Government is the government of the United Kingdom. Under the Constitution of the United Kingdom, executive authority notionally lies with the monarch but is exercised in practice by her ministers...
buildings in
Central LondonThe term Central London refers to the districts of London which are considered closest to the centre. There is no conventional definition, nor any official one, for the entire area that can be called "central London". Central London covers about 10 square miles on areas both north and south of the...
. On the night of 30 May an explosive device was placed on a
urinalA urinal is a specialized toilet for urinating only, generally by males. It has the form of a container or simply a wall, with drainage and automatic or manual flushing....
outside Scotland Yard, and later detonated causing severe damage to the
CIDThe Criminal Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service...
and
Special Irish BranchSpecial Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in Ireland's Garda Síochána...
offices. Later the same night another bomb exploded outside a club in what used to be
Sir Watkin WynnSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet was a Welsh politician. He was Member of Parliament for Beaumaris from 1794 to 1796, and for Denbighshire from 1796 to 1840. He was Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire from 1793 to 1830.- References:...
's house, and another was found placed at
Nelson's ColumnNelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square, London, England, United Kingdom.-Origins and design:The column was built between 1840 and 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The 5.5 m statue of Nelson stands on top of a 46 m Foggintor granite...
.
Popular culture
In popular fiction and cinema, the term New Scotland Yard is often used as a metonym for the Metropolitan Police, occasionally for the entire UK police-force.
Scotland Yard has become internationally famous as a symbol of policing, and detectives from Scotland Yard feature in many works of
crime fictionCrime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
. They were frequent allies — and sometimes antagonists — of
Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
in Sir
Arthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle,
DL was a British physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's famous stories (see, for instance,
Inspector LestradeInspector Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of an acquaintance from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a St...
). It is also referred 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 CreaseyJohn Creasey was a prolific English crime writer, who published in excess of 600 novels under 28 different pseudonyms, including Patrick Dawlish, Anthony Morton, Michael Halliday, Kyle Hunt, J.J...
's stories featuring George Gideon are amongst the earliest police procedurals. Commander
Adam DalglieshAdam Dalgliesh is a fictional character who has been the protagonist of fourteen mystery novels by P. D. James. Dalgliesh first appeared in James' 1962 novel Cover Her Face, and has appeared in most of James' subsequent novels.-Character:...
, created by
P. D. JamesPhyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring her most iconic creation, policeman and poet Adam...
, and Inspector
Richard JuryRichard Jury is a fictional Scotland Yard detective who stars in a series of mystery novels written by Martha Grimes.Initially a chief inspector, later a superintendent, Jury is invariably assisted in his cases by Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles, and his...
, created by
Martha GrimesMartha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the...
are notable recent examples. A somewhat more improbable example is
Baroness OrczyBaroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel...
's aristocratic female Scotland Yard detective Molly Robertson-Kirk, known as
Lady Molly of Scotland YardBest known as the creator of the Scarlet Pimpernel, The Baroness Orczy also created two immortal turn-of-the century detectives, the old man in the corner and Molly Robertson-Kirk otherwise known as Lady Molly of Scotland Yard....
.
Agatha ChristieDame Agatha Christie DBE , was an English crime writer of novels, short stories and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays...
's numerous mystery novels often referenced Scotland Yard, most notably in her Poirot series.
During the 1930s, there was a short-lived
pulp magazinePulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines. They were widely published from 1896 through the 1950s. The term pulp fiction can also refer to mass market paperbacks since the 1950s....
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 StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rather than having anything to do with the Metropolitan Police.
Scotland Yard was the name of a series of cinema
second featuresA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture conceived neither as an arthouse film nor as pornography. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double...
made between 1953 and 1961. Introduced by
Edgar LustgartenEdgar Marcus Lustgarten was a British broadcaster and noted crime writer.His books included crime fiction, but most were accounts of true-life criminal cases. The legal justice system and courtroom procedures were his main interests and his writings reflect this...
, each episode featured a dramatised reconstruction of a 'true crime' story. Filmed at
Merton Park StudiosMerton Park Studios was a British film production studio in South Wimbledon, London.Opened in 1930, many second features were produced there, and for a time it was home to Radio Luxembourg...
, many of the episodes featured
Russell NapierRussell Gordon Napier was an Australian actor.Russell Napier was born in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a lawyer, Napier was active as an actor from 1947 to 1974, playing both comedic and dramatic roles in both cinema and television. Notably, he starred in the first film adaptation of H. G...
as Inspector Duggan. The series was succeeded by
The Scales of JusticeThe Scales of Justice was a series of thirteen British B-movies produced between 1962 and 1967 for Anglo-Amalgamated at Merton Park Studios in London.They were based on actual criminal cases and each film was introduced by crime writer Edgar Lustgarten...
, which dealt with a similar theme. In the comedy series
BatmanBatman is a 1960s American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name, which starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, two crime-fighting heroes who defended "Gotham City". It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for two and a half seasons...
, the caped crusaders in England meet members of "Ireland Yard"- clearly a spoof of Scotland Yard. In addition, Scotland yard is briefly mentioned in the Broadway musical
Jekyll & HydeJekyll & Hyde is a Broadway musical based on the novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The original stage conception was by Steve Cuden and Frank Wildhorn. The music was composed by Wildhorn and the lyrics were written by Leslie Bricusse.The show opened on...
, in the opening of the second act in the song entitled "Murder, Murder", speaking of the catching of a murderer.
Fabian of the Yard was a television series transmitted by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
made on film and transmitted between 1954 and 1956, based upon the career of the by then retired Detective Inspector Robert Fabian. It focused on the subject of forensic science, which at the time was still in its infancy. Fabian usually appeared in a
cameoA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television. Short appearances by film directors, politicians, athletes, musicians, and other celebrities are common. These roles are generally small, and...
shot towards the end of each
episodeAn episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
.
A long running gag to end skits in
Monty Python's Flying CircusMonty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC sketch comedy programme from the Monty Python comedy team, and the group's initial claim to fame. The show was noted for its surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags, and sketches without punchlines...
is a policeman in a tan raincoat and a fedora bursting in, and announcing themselves as "so-and-so of the Yard."
See also
- British Transport Police
The British Transport Police is a special police force that polices those railways and light-rail systems in Great Britain for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services...
- Central Communications Command
The Central Communications Command is the largest Operational Command Unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is responsible for communications within the Metropolitan Police and between the police and the public & other forces, taking over from a number of smaller communications...
- Central Operations
Central Operations is a major directorate of the London Metropolitan Police Service that provides operational support to the rest of the service...
- City of London Police
The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle and Inner Temple...
- Directorate of Professional Standards
The Directorate of Professional Standards is a directorate of London's Metropolitan Police Service. The Directorate is responsible for investigating complaints against the professional conduct of Officers, the DPS replaced the Complaints Investigation Bureau.The DPS focuses on standards, and the...
- Economic and Specialist Crime
Economic and Specialist Crime is a branch of the Specialist Crime Directorate within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The units main responsibility is to both investigate and take steps to prevent fraud, along with a wide range of other fraudulent crimes which require specialist knowledge and...
- List of police forces in the United Kingdom
- Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit
The Air Support Unit is a Central Operations branch, of London's Metropolitan Police Service. The main responsibility of the unit, is to provide aerial reconnaissance and other air support operations...
- MI5
The Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
- Security Service
- Murder Investigation Team
Murder/Major Investigation Teams are the specialised homicide squads of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, based in the Specialist Crime Directorate of the London Metropolitan Police. There is one MIT for each Borough Operational Command Unit...
- National Identification Service
The National Identification Service is a department of the London Metropolitan Police which provides a range of support services on behalf of the Metropolitan Police and other police forces.All SO4's services are connected with criminal records and include a remit to act as the National...
- National Policing Improvement Agency
The United Kingdom's National Policing Improvement Agency is a non-departmental public body established to support police by providing expertise in such areas as information technology, information sharing, and recruitment.-Background:...
- Royal Parks Constabulary
The Royal Parks Constabulary was the police force formerly responsible for the Royal Parks in London and a number of other locations in Greater London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland; it now only exists in Scotland as part of Historic Scotland....
- Serious Organised Crime Agency
The Serious Organised Crime Agency is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government and a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom....
- Specialist Crime Directorate
The Specialist Crime Directorate is one of the main branches of the London Metropolitan Police Service. It deals with a wide range of criminality from murder to organised crime. Assistant Commissioner John Yates is currently the head of the directorate...
- Specialist Firearms Command
Specialist Firearms Command is a Central Operations branch within Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service. The Command is responsible for providing a firearms-response capability, assisting the rest of the service which is routinely unarmed...
- Specialist Operations
Specialist Operations is a directorate of the Metropolitan Police. At its peak, SO was a group of twenty specialist units, which were formed to give the Metropolitan Police a specialist policing capability. The SO designation was implemented in 1986 as part of Sir Kenneth Newman's restructuring of...
- Territorial Support Group
The Territorial Support Group is a Central Operations unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service consisting of 720 officers, that specialises in public order containment among other specialist policing. The TSG is a uniformed unit of the MPS that replaced the controversial Special Patrol Group...
External links