Somerton TARDIS

Buildings and structures in Newport, WalesCulture in Newport, WalesDoctor WhoGrade II listed buildings in Newport, WalesLandmarks in Newport, Wales

The Somerton TARDIS is a Police box on Acacia Avenue beside the B4237 road (Chepstow Road) in the Somerton area of Newport, South Wales. This police box is the only remaining one of four that were in Newport. It is a Grade II listed building. Police boxes were deployed in the UK as a police telephone communications point before public telephone boxes were widely available. Patrolling police officers or members of the public could contact the local police station using the telephone accessed via an external flap. Internally, the box was a miniature police station. The Somerton police box has a lamp fixing on top which would flash to indicate an incoming call. The first UK police boxes were deployed in 1888; the familiar 'TARDIS' shape first appeared in 1929. UK police discontinued use of such boxes by 1969 with the advent of police personal radios for mobile communications. The Somerton police box became known in Newport as the TARDIS as a reference to the television series Doctor Who, in which the Doctor's time machine appears as a police box due to its chameleon circuit being stuck. During the 1980s local residents painted a long multi-coloured scarf on the blue police box as worn by the Fourth Doctor, played by actor Tom Baker 1974–1981. The earliest UK police boxes were made of wood, but the Somerton box is a concrete construction. Consequently, it deteriorated over the years, largely due to concrete cancer. In January 2010 a grant of £10,500 was allocated by Cadw to restore the structure as a recognition of its importance as a local landmark. It is a Grade II listed structure. Cadw's listing record locates the box at the junction with Hawthorn Avenue but notes that this "varies through time and space."

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Somerton TARDIS (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Somerton TARDIS
Somerton Crescent, Newport Ladyhill

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude	Longitude
N 51.58828 °	E -2.95935 °

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Address

Somerton Crescent
NP19 9AY Newport, Ladyhill
Wales, United Kingdom
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Nearby Places

Alway

Alway is an electoral district (ward) and coterminous community (formerly civil parish) of the city of Newport. The ward is bounded by the Great Western Main Line to the south, Windsor Road, Chepstow Road and Beechwood Road to the west, the M4 motorway to the north, and a line running between Glanwern Grove, Ringwood Hill, Ringland Circle, Aberthaw Road, and Balfe Road to the east. The area is governed by the Newport City Council. The ward contains the Alway estate itself plus Somerton and the eastern fringes of Beechwood around Beechwood Park. It is also home to Ladyhill Reservoir, a 22.5 ML treated water storage facility that serves the east of the city. All the roads in the Alway Estate are named after famous composers.

Somerton, Newport

Somerton is an area in the south-east of Newport. The northern half of the area is located in the Alway ward with the southern half in the Lliswerry ward – The two halves being separated by the Great Western Main Line. Somerton has a local Primary School and Post Office and is the location of St Patricks RC Church. Somerton is perhaps best known for Somerton Park – the former home of professional football and speedway in Newport with Newport County and the Newport Wasps. The neighbourhood is also home to one of the last remaining 'TARDIS' police boxes in the city – the Somerton TARDIS on Chepstow Road.

Beechwood Park, Newport

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Somerton Park

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