The Smallest Police Station in Great Britain

A visit to the corner of Trafalgar Square

The last time I went to London, I wanted to see something a little bit different than museums and restaurants. And this is how I manage to find the smallest police station in Great Britain. Yeah, this is for real and is located on the southeast corner of Trafalgar Square.

If you have been to this square, there is a great chance that you already have seen this but… Since you didn’t know what were you looking for, you just ignored it like everybody that went by while I was taking pictures of it on a cold February night earlier this year.

Britain’s smallest police station is often overlooked because of its size. Most people at Trafalgar Square don’t even know what is on the corner. But it wasn’t always like that. Built back in 1926 so that London’s Metropolitan Police could keep an eye on what was happening around it.

Like an old school version of a CCTV camera.

And, like a CCTV camera, this police station was meant to be somewhat hidden so it could take care of problems without taking that much attention. This is why it was built inside an ornamental light fitting. This way, most people walking around and leaving the subway station in front of it would not even realize that there was police so close.

If you take a look around the police station, you can see that it has a set of narrow windows that can be used to look all around Trafalgar Square. Also, there used to be a line connecting it straight into the Scotland Yard, in case reinforcements were needed. Supposedly, if somebody were using the phone, the light on top of the police station would start to flash, alerting any police officers in the area that there was trouble in the area.

The smallest police station in Great Britain looks small from the outside, but it was built to accommodate up to two prisoners at a time, but you won’t be seeing anything like this now. Today, this small building is no longer used by the police. Right now, it’s used by the Westminster Council cleaners as broom storage but, when I was there, I couldn’t see anything inside.

The last time I went to London, I wanted to see something a little bit different, and this is how I manage to find the smallest police station in Great Britain. Yeah, this is for real and is located on the southeast corner of Trafalgar Square. If you have been to this square, there is a great chance that you already have seen this but… Since you didn’t know what were you looking, you just ignored it like everybody that went by while I was taking pictures of it on a cold February night earlier this year.

If you want to find this weird sight that London has to offer, go to Trafalgar Square and look for the subway exit. In the southeast corner, there is a small stone box with a light fixture on top. If you find it, you are at the right place.