Hello! We are Tommy and Jane. We recently started this project after living near the unused police box at the end of Leamington Terrace (near Gilmore Place). We wanted to be creative about imagining its potential.
Convert a rusting box into a community resource
The police box has been unused for years and is slowly deteriorating, as the panels rust and paint flakes away — despite the occasional top-up of graffiti! We’re currently repairing the police box and hoping to turn it into something to benefit the community. We’re also asking local residents what they want the police box to become and we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Design your own police box
On our website you can download a ‘make your own police box’ set. We’d love to see you make your own mini-model to help tell us what you want the police box to be used for.

Don’t feel like you have to colour within the lines! When coming up with designs: dream big, have fun and remember there are no bad ideas. We’ve had a brilliant response so far. The image above shows a few of the ideas some people have sent in. We’ve had a bike repair station, plant swap shop, a John Muir Way bothy and many more great ideas. We imagine the police box will have many changing uses. Help us use the police box as a tool as a test to see what would make our neighbourhood thrive.
Over the next few months…

This is a ‘meanwhile’ project – a temporary project, aiming to encourage others to think about place and take an interest in our built environment. Over the next few months, we will be sharing our experience as we learn and help to support a thriving neighbourhood by reimagining the unused police box.
We’ll be using the police box project to share our lessons learned as we hope to transform a place. We’ll also be sharing top tips from artists, urban designers and anyone with an interesting insight as the project develops. If you have any ideas – please get in touch. Follow us on social media for our ‘beginners guide to placemaking’. We hope it inspires and helps you to start your own placemaking project.
Keep in touch with the police box project
For project updates, please get in touch via email or follow our website and social media.
- Website – https://policeboxproject.wixsite.com/getinvolved
- Email – policeboxproject@gmail.com
- Instagram (@policeboxproject) – https://www.instagram.com/policeboxproject/
- Twitter (@policeboxproj) – https://twitter.com/policeboxproj
- Facebook (@policeboxproject) – https://www.facebook.com/policeboxproject
where is your funds for restoration coming from?
Hi Francis, that’s a good question and something we need to do more research into. So far costs have been fairly minimal, but we will soon need to replace the rusted steel panels. The police box owners (The Causey Development Trust) have agreed to contribute to some of the costs, but we will also be applying for grants to cover the rest of the costs. We’ll post more updates about fundraising on our social media soon.