In 1963, when Doctor Who began, hundreds of blue police phone boxes were scattered all over the UK. They served a very important purpose in the days before the Internet and smartphones (I know, just after the Ice Age). Inside these iconic blue boxes were actual telephones in which passers-by could alert the police if they saw something on the fair streets of Britain that didn’t look quite right.

Doctor Who fans around the world have built refrigerators based on them, added a faux-fronts to their homes that resembled them and even made their kids’ room so TARDIS life-like, The Doctor would be proud. While these are great tributes, the have nothing on the city of Glasgow in Scotland where fans worldwide can see the real thing. Thanks to Radio Times Travel, a number of these ‘official’ blue police boxes that survived destruction at the hands of local authorities who had nary a clue that the Doctor Who phenomenon would outlive the rapidly deteriorating boxes.

Thanks to Ward Westwater, Glasgow has preserved a handful of these original, Tardis-style, police call boxes. Westwater bought some of the remaining boxes and restored them for Doctor Who fans to enjoy on the streets of Glasgow, Scotland without having to pay museum prices. Interestingly, two of them used to be coffee huts, selling homemade beverages. I wonder if it was take-away only or if, in true Tardis form, it had endless seating inside away from the cold Glasgow winters.

Buchanan Street, Glasgow G1
 

Cathedral Square, Glasgow G4
 

For more original Tardis-style police boxes in and around Glasgow and the UK, check our more at Radio Times.