New Scotland Yard

The name New Scotland Yard has become one of the most recognized symbols of policing in the world, yet few know it comes from a medieval palace where Scottish kings once stayed when visiting England. This building on Victoria Embankment is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the force responsible for keeping peace across thirty two boroughs serving over eight million people. When Sir Robert Peel established the Met in eighteen twenty nine, he chose four Whitehall Place as its first home.

The building's public entrance faced a small street called Great Scotland Yard, named after the vanished royal palace that once stood there. As citizens came and went through that entrance, the name Scotland Yard became inseparable from the police force itself, eventually becoming shorthand for detective work worldwide. The force grew rapidly from one thousand officers to over thirteen thousand by eighteen ninety, making a move essential.

Architect Norman Shaw designed an impressive riverside headquarters on the Thames Embankment, officially named New Scotland Yard. The building expanded into a three structure complex by nineteen forty, housing the Criminal Investigation Department founded in eighteen seventy eight. After relocating to a modern tower on Broadway in nineteen sixty seven, the Met returned to the Embankment in twenty sixteen. The Curtis Green Building, just steps from where it all began, now serves as the fourth headquarters to bear the famous name.