Hammersmith Police Station.

Image of one of two traditional police blue lamps that have recently been installed outside Hammersmith Police Station. The station closed in late 2016 to undergo a huge £59 million expansion, which will include horse stables, new custody cells, modern offices for its criminal investigation department, and underground parking. Much of the expansion has been built behind the original 1930s Grade II-listed police station. A 24/7 front counter at Shepherd’s Bush police station, opened as a temporary measure whilst Hammersmith Police Station remained under construction, has recently announced it will close.

Blue lamps are synonymous with police stations after they appeared around the mid-nineteenth century. Probably the most famous of all British police films was called The Blue Lamp, an Ealing Studios production from 1950 about a London police station. The film became the inspiration for the 1955–1976 TV series Dixon of Dock Green, where the central character would give monologues from under a blue lamp.