Roundabouts, Police-Pillars and Government Cutbacks

During the summer holidays in the mid 1960s there was no roundabout at Colinton Mains Park but there was one at Mornigside Drive so Fiona Blades (6/6 Oxgangs Avenue) and I used to walk from from the west end of the Avenue to the play-park at Morningside Drive.

Fiona Blades

It was a long walk, particularly on hot summer days, because we had to walk the length of Oxgangs Avenue and then work our way through the sweeping avenues and bungalows of Greenbank not to mention all the way back home.

We must have been keen and devoid of alternatives after all there must have been only so many times we could take a spin on the roundabout!

More recently I asked Fiona if she recalled us making rogue phone calls to the emergency services from the Pillar-Police speaker-phone which was located along Greenbank Road.

Fiona couldn't even recall the pillar, never mind the calls.

Anyway, we would open the small door which formed the torso of the police pillar, pick up the speaker-phone and once we heard the operator on the other end we usually panicked and hung up; possibly on a few occasions we had the chutzpah to go further and report a kitchen fire or some such emergency. After doing this we took to our heels and ran like the clappers and absolutely flew along the road for fear of the 'bobbies' appearing; we didn't feel safe until we reached Oxgangs.

One reason I recall the police pillar was that I always looked forward to seeing it as I found the design aesthetically pleasing. Of course I wasn't thinking in such conceptual terms at that age; all I knew was that I liked the shape including the blue colour (I've discovered some were red too) and another aspect of the appeal was that it represented something from a bygone era.

The design is clearly based on the human body. If I could get hold of one now I'd have it as a garden sculpture.

I seem to recall there was one at the cross-roads halfway down Durham Road, Portobello across from my grandmother's house but outwith that I don't recall seeing others. However, after doing a wee bit research, Edinburgh was a significant area for them with over 500 miles of lines laid throughout the city.

They were designed by the Ericsson company and were introduced around 1931. I may be wrong but I think this was the design of the one at Greenbank. A mark 2 version appeared around 1938 and then further designs in the 1950s which are less appealing.

The idea behind them must have been to give households access to a phone to contact the emergency services - fire, ambulance or police. Those were the days when very few homes had their own telephone; also pre-police radios it was a way of peripatetic police officers out on patrol being able to contact police stations.

It was also promoted as a way of saving money and allowing the city to close twenty five police stations - yes even back in the day the public sector was looking at cutbacks!