Detective Shaw’s London: Curtis Green Building (New Scotland Yard)

I opened this series of articles with the old New Scotland Yard, which from 1967 until October 2016 was in a building at 10 Broadway, and it seems right to close it with the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, which has occupied a building on Victoria Embankment since November 2016: the Curtis Green Building.

Located along the Thames, more or less opposite the London Eye, the Curtis Green Building owes its name to the architect who designed it in the 1930s: William Curtis Green. It is a white building in neoclassical style built between 1935 and 1940 and which has always belonged to the London Metropolitan Police. It was initially used as an extension of the police headquarters, housing the forensic science and technology departments. Later, when the headquarters was moved to Broadway, it became the Whitewall Police Station until 2010.

The renovation of the building which took place between 2015 and 2016 was designed by Arup (the same company that created the London Eye and the new roof of the departures concourse of King’s Cross Station) and gave it a touch of modernity while maintaining the original structure. On the roof of the new entrance delimited by a glass wall, a sign bearing the words “New Scotland Yard” was positioned, while on its right side the famous rotating sign was installed, taken from the old location. At the other end of the entrance is the Eternal Flame, a flame always lit in commemoration of the fallen officers.

Leaving the Curtis Green Building and crossing the road, you find yourself on the Victoria Embankment riverfront, from which you can admire the buildings on the opposite bank. If, however, you walk in the opposite direction to the flow of the waters of the Thames, you will soon arrive near Big Ben and Palace of Westminster (house of the British Parliament).

While moving to the Curtis Green Building, the Metropolitan Police, as well as taking the rotating sign with them, also moved the Black Museum, which unfortunately continues to not be open to the public.

Obviously, unless you get arrested, it isn’t possible to see the inside of this building, but I think that, given the optimal position, it’s still worth it to admire it from the outside and take some photos (the images in this article are by David Holt CC 2.0).

Having become New Scotland Yard, the Curtis Green Building appears in the last book of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy, “Beyond the Limit”, precisely in this capacity and above all as the headquarters of one of the teams (Eric’s) from Forensic Services of the Metropolitan Police.

Several scenes of the novel are set inside it, which obviously I have never seen and to describe which I relied on my imagination, shaping it to my liking based on the needs of the story (in reality it is substantially different). In the latter we mainly see Eric in his new office, the IT laboratory, the meeting room, and also Jane’s office. To be honest, I don’t even know if there is any section of Forensic Services in the Curtis Green Building (whose main laboratory in London is located in Lambeth Road), in any case I decided to have the characters move within its walls because of its geographical position (in front of the London Eye) and above all because, being a renovated building, it represents the ideal place for a new beginning in Eric’s life.

But to understand what I’m talking about, I’m afraid you’ll have to read the book.