Meridian Police

The oldest institution on the Rock that still keeps its doors open all night. Small, stubborn and proud of it.

Founded
1871
Headquarters
Meridian House
Strength
About 180 officers, including 14 detectives
Motto
Vigilans (watchful)
Badge
A silver eight-pointed star
Detectives
The Third Floor

Why “Meridian”

The front hall of Meridian House has a brass line set into its marble floor. At midday the sun comes through a small hole in the dome and lands on it. For a century, ships' officers walked in off the street to set their clocks by it. When the force was founded, the line gave it its name: the fixed mark that everything else is measured against.

A beam of sunlight falling on the brass meridian line in the front hall
The meridian line in the front hall of Meridian House, at noon.

Meridian House

A stone building from 1871 with a clock tower added in 1903. The tower clock has run five minutes slow since a storm in 1940, and nobody has ever been allowed to fix it. The cells are in the basement, the canteen is on the roof, and the detectives work on the third floor.

Meridian House, a stone police headquarters with a clock tower, at night
Meridian House at night.

The Third Floor

The Criminal Investigation Department is fourteen detectives, eleven desks and one coffee machine that has outlived three Chief Constables. At the end of the corridor is a grey filing cabinet nobody else will touch. It holds the cases that never closed.

Timeline

  1. 1871The Meridian Police is founded.
  2. 1903The clock tower is added to Meridian House.
  3. 1940A storm leaves the tower clock five minutes slow.
  4. 1962A young constable called Joe Bonavia joins.
  5. 1971The detectives move to the third floor.
  6. 1985Winter. Reports start coming in that don't add up.

Officers