New Scotland Yard is the headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police and has been since 1967 – but not for much longer, as the premises have recently been sold off to the Abu Dhabi Financial Group for £370 million. The building will soon be demolished and replaced with luxury apartments while the MET downsizes and relocates their headquarters to the Curtis Green building on the Victoria Embankment.
I found no PCs present outside the building so I tried to get inside and explained about the project to the security guards stationed at the locked gates but was told that I could only gain entry if I had booked an appointment with someone.
Figuring that a PC would have to enter or exit the building sooner or later, I spent some hours at the Starbucks just opposite the building as it had a window looking right out onto the entrance.
I was midway through my second coffee when a police van drove by. I darted out the door in time to see it pull up onto the curb. The driver disembarked and I followed him into an off-licence shop. I verified that he was a PC and then explained about how I needed to see APC at NSY.
PC61 gave the project a London Underground Tube map to help me find my way around London and I was sent to meet a football fan in Tottenham.
Pocket Number 15: Fooball fan at Tottenham >>
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