New Scotland Yard: An Open House London Highlight

My hand sanitiser and a packet of wipes went into a sealed evidence bag at the door. That is how a visit to the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police begins. The security was airport style, with trays, scanners and officers watching every bag. My liquids were handed back, still in their evidence bag, on the way out.

This was my Open House visit to New Scotland Yard, on Victoria Embankment, a few minutes' walk from Parliament. It lasted about 30 minutes, from the security queue to the exit.

How Did I Get Inside New Scotland Yard?

New Scotland Yard is not a building you can simply walk into. It opens its doors only rarely, and when it took part in Open House London in September 2021 the places were given out by public ballot. I entered, and an email later told me I had a place. If you want to try your luck, my Open House London guide explains how the festival and its booking work.

On the day, I queued outside for the security check. Everything went through a scanner, just like at an airport. Liquids, gels and wipes were taken away and sealed in evidence bags. I got mine back as I left.

After security, the glass pavilion at the front served as the waiting room. From there, I was shown into the entrance hall of the old building. Then an escort took the group up to the rooftop extension. At no point did anyone wander off alone. This is a working police headquarters, after all.

Why Is It Called Scotland Yard?

The Metropolitan Police was founded in 1829 under Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act. Its first headquarters was at 4 Whitehall Place. The building's public entrance opened onto a street behind it called Great Scotland Yard. Over time the name of the street became the name of the force, and then a byword for its detectives.

Where the street got its name is less certain. Sixteenth-century maps already mark the land east of Whitehall as Scotland or Scotland Yard. One long-told story says the land once lodged visiting Scottish kings. Another points to a medieval landowner or an old word for rent. Historians still disagree, so I would treat the royal story as legend rather than fact.

The street called Great Scotland Yard still exists, just off Whitehall. It is a short walk from the headquarters.

Where Has Scotland Yard Been Since 1829?

The force has moved several times, and the word "New" in the name is older than the building I visited. In 1890 the Met moved into a grand red brick and Portland stone headquarters on Victoria Embankment. It was designed by Richard Norman Shaw with John Dixon Butler and built between 1887 and 1890. That was the first New Scotland Yard.

Its construction came with a mystery. In 1888 workers found the dismembered torso of a woman on the building site. The case became known as the Whitehall Mystery and was never solved.

The Norman Shaw North building was listed Grade I in 1970. It and its southern twin later passed to Parliament and became offices. In 1967 the Met moved its headquarters to a new tower at 10 Broadway, near St James's Park. That building carried the name New Scotland Yard for nearly fifty years.

In 2013 the Met announced it would leave Broadway to cut costs. On 31 October 2016 staff left 10 Broadway and moved back to the Embankment. The new headquarters sits right beside the Norman Shaw buildings. So after 49 years in Victoria, Scotland Yard came home to the river.

What Is the Curtis Green Building?

The building now called New Scotland Yard was designed by William Curtis Green in 1935. It was built between 1935 and 1940 as an extension to the Norman Shaw headquarters next door. Curtis Green also designed the Piccadilly car showroom that is now The Wolseley restaurant. Here, the style is stripped classical: plain Portland stone, tall windows and very little ornament.

The building has housed the Met in one form or another since it was finished. After the 1967 move it served as a sub-headquarters, and until 2010 it was home to the territorial policing department. Before the refurbishment it had about 8,700 square metres of floor space.

It sits in the Whitehall Conservation Area, surrounded by Grade I and Grade II listed buildings. That context shaped everything the architects were allowed to add. The display boards in the waiting room showed old photographs, aerial views and drawings of how the building had changed.

What Did AHMM Change at New Scotland Yard?

The refurbishment was designed by the architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, known as AHMM. Arup were the engineers and BAM built it. The work ran through 2015 and 2016. The government put the cost at £58 million, paid for from the sale of 10 Broadway.

The most visible change is the entrance pavilion. It is a low, curved glass structure stretched across the front of the old building. The glass is meant to signal openness, a public face that feels less like a fortress. It sits on a pale stone plinth that matches the Portland stone walls behind it.

The second big addition is on the roof. AHMM added a bronze-coloured pavilion with meeting rooms, multi-use space and terraces. At night it is lit from inside with a soft blue glow. According to the architects, the light stands for the round-the-clock work of the force.

Smaller stone extensions at the back raised the floor space to around 12,000 square metres. Inside, some details nod to police history. The entrance mat is striped to echo the brickwork of Norman Shaw's building. Through the pavilion glass you can see the memorial to officers who died on duty, with its eternal flame.

The Queen officially opened the building on 17 July 2017. In October 2017 the project won the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award at the British Construction Industry Awards.

The waiting room also held the architects' models. There was a wooden section cut open to show every floor, a white model of the whole site and a small fleet of toy police cars parked on a desk beside them.

What Is the Tour of New Scotland Yard Like?

The tour began with a short introductory video in the pavilion. Then I was taken through the entrance hall and up to the rooftop extension. There, an architect from AHMM gave a talk about the project. The talk covered what was kept, what was added and why the pavilions look the way they do.

It was not a tour of police offices or operations rooms, and I would not expect one. The route was short and tightly managed. From queue to exit, the whole thing took about 30 minutes.

If you enjoy this kind of short, rare peek inside a working institution, the same festival opens other doors. I have also written about 113 Chancery Lane and the British Academy, both places I could only see during Open House.

What Can You See From the New Scotland Yard Roof Terrace?

The terrace faces the river, and the view is the reason the rooftop talk is so popular. Below are the plane trees of Victoria Embankment and the traffic along the road. Across the Thames, the London Eye fills the frame.

This stretch of the river runs between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. On the far bank is the South Bank, with County Hall beside the Eye. From eight floors up, the tour buses on the Embankment look like toys.

A police officer stood on the terrace while the group took in the view. The roof is a working space for meetings rather than a viewing platform. For another civic building with a river setting, see my post on London's City Hall. The terrace is one of the rooftops in my guide to the best views of London.

Is the Famous Revolving Sign the Original One?

The spinning triangular sign is one of the most photographed police landmarks in London. It first went up outside the Broadway headquarters in 1968. The artist Edward Wright designed its lettering, a typeface known as Flaxman. At Broadway it turned more than 14,000 times a day.

When the Met moved to the Embankment, the sign came too, in a sense. The company Signbox redesigned and rebuilt it for the new site, finishing in early 2017. The new version has LED lighting and weighs about 700 kilograms. Its rotation speed was worked out so that it does not blur on television.

As I left, vintage police cars were parked by the sign. One was a blue-and-white car, with an officer standing beside it. It made a good last photo on the way out.

Can You Visit the Black Museum at New Scotland Yard?

No. The Crime Museum, long nicknamed the Black Museum, is not open to the public. It was set up in 1874 as a teaching collection for police officers. An Observer reporter who was refused entry gave it the nickname in 1877.

The collection is kept in the basement of the Curtis Green Building. Officers and other police forces can visit by appointment. The public has only had rare chances to see parts of it, such as an exhibition at the Museum of London from October 2015 to April 2016. It was not part of my Open House tour.

Can You Visit New Scotland Yard Outside Open House?

As far as I could find, no. New Scotland Yard is a working police headquarters with no public tours. Your best chance is Open House London, the free festival that opens buildings across all the London boroughs every September.

Even then, it does not take part every year, and places are limited. The Open House Festival 2026 runs from 12 to 20 September. Check the programme when it goes live in July, and book or enter ballots as soon as they open. If the ballot does not go your way, Westminster Bridge and the Embankment give a good view of the outside. Waterloo station is only a walk across the river.

Visiting New Scotland Yard: Practical Notes

📍 Where: New Scotland Yard, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2JL.

📅 Open days: Only during Open House London, in years when it takes part. It is not listed every year, so check the festival programme each July.

🎫 Admission: Free, through the Open House booking system or ballot. Open House asks you to register for a free account before booking.

🚇 Getting there: Westminster (Circle, District, Jubilee) and Embankment (Bakerloo, Circle, District, Northern) are both a short walk away.

⏳ How long: My visit took about 30 minutes, including security, a short video and the rooftop talk.

📷 Best time: The terrace faces the Thames and the London Eye, so a clear day gives the best views. Outside, the revolving sign is always there to photograph.

🗺️ Nearby: The Norman Shaw buildings next door, Great Scotland Yard street, Whitehall, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge.

🧳 Left luggage: Airport-style security applies. Bring as little as possible, and expect liquids, gels and wipes to be bagged until you leave.

Have you ever won an Open House ballot for a building like this, and which one would you enter next?

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All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.