Since October 2012 New Scotland Yard’s future has become increasingly uncertain. Following government cuts it was announced that the iconic 20-storey stainless steel office block could be sold in an attempt to save £500m annually. Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Craig Mackey has planned to move the headquarters to a nearby location in Cannon Row that houses approximately 31, 200 less staff. Today it is still not clear what will become of these towering headquarters that have been central to Met’s stalwart image for almost half a century.
It feels an age since this outdated grey building, typical of 1960s architectural trends, represented a new era of police efficiency. Due to the requirements of modern technology on 8 March 1967 the Metropolitan Police Force moved from its old Victorian Embankment site to Broadway and Victoria Street. For the first time whole floors were dedicated to technical staff specially trained in finger prints, photography and forensic science. Such facilities enabled detectives to successfully apprehend those behind the Great Train Robbery in 1968, the Richardson brothers in 1966, and then the Kray twins in 1969.
Following these successful arrests at the end of the 1960s, however, there was a divide at the very heart of the Metropolitan Police. An inner conflict ensued between the old fashioned grizzled detective and a new academic breed of officer well versed in forensics with a more methodical approach to detection. This new officer was a far cry from the old fashioned detective who worked on instinct and was hardly a stranger to the ways of corruption and a bending of the rules. This transitory era of the police was best symbolised and epitomised by the new Scotland Yard site. Its clinical and impersonal ambiance was not to the the liking of the old guard. One detective claimed, ‘no one could ever find my office now I can’t find anyone else’s’ (Ascoli 1979, p. 295).
Susan Kay Lee
Shilton
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