History of the Metropolitan Police

New Scotland Yard

This red and white brick Victorian Gothic building designed by Norman Shaw was located on Victoria Embankment, SW1 adjacent to Cannon Row police station and built specifically to be the new Police Headquarters.

The Norman Shaw Building of New Scotland Yard on the Embankment

The building was the site of the unsolved Whitehall Mystery (1888) when a woman's torso was concealed in the cellar by night as the building work was in progress. Its main gates provided a background in many police films, and it held the original telephone number Whitehall 1212. However, the offices were cramped and inadequate

The new headquarters in Broadway, 1967

From 1967 the Metropolitan Police Headquarters have been located at 10 Broadway, SW1. This is a plain stainless steel clad office block behind St James's Park Underground Station. Its most famous feature is the revolving sign outside, which performs over 14,000 revolutions every day.