TARDIS!

 
 As any visitor to Glasgow knows, we've still got police boxes.
 As a huge dr who fan, this is of course a source of great civic pride. Whenever I walk down Buchanan street, that blue box sticks out a mile away no matter how crowded (and it is always crowded) the street is. Even on May 4th, when we had Darth Vader and stormtroopers on Buchanan street, that didn't even come close.
 Of course, it wasn't always there. It was reintroduced in the late 90s (I think 1996). Before that, of course, they had been decommissioned by the early 70s due to the widepsread use of personal radios (and, no doubt, doctor who jokes). In 1994 Strathclyde Police decided to get rid of the remaining boxes. However, owing to the intervention of the Civil Defence & Emergency Service Preservation Trust and the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, a few were kept around the city.
 But here's the shocking thing...they were red!

See how wrong it looks?

 Glasgow police boxes were all painted red until the late 60s. Aside from it just looking wrong, why red? Surely red is the colour of the fire brigade? If I saw a red police box, I'd assume it was for calling the fire brigade (to compund the confusion, they actually had fire extinguishers in them). Dr Who can't even be blamed here, because they'd been like that with introduction of the Mark I's (the Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design) in the 30s (police boxes went through several evolutions since their introduction in Albany, New York, in 1877).
 One thing that really annoys me -really really annoys me - is that they never leave the things alone. They're used as coffee shops, or repainted. In my opinion, this is wrong. They look great, tourists love them, and when you're drunk and coming round the corner past TGI Fridays in the early hours it just looks awesome.