The Wearside icon which was smelly, in the middle of traffic - and people loved it

The famous police box was in the Market Place and was used to direct the traffic for decades.

The reason the box was there at all was so that it could “direct traffic through the cramped city centre”, said a Sunderland Echo retro report in 2018.

Pongy reasons for making the news headlines

There to oversee it all would be a police officer, who would have control of the vehicles passing through Durham.

That officer would operate traffic lights to send vehicles on their way from Elvet, Claypath and Silver Street.

There was room for only one person as they monitored the traffic through the narrow streets by closed circuit televisions.

But 53 years ago, the box made the headlines for aromatic reasons.

Sign up for our free retro newsletter to see more memories, pictures and stories from Sunderland’s past

A mysterious smell had developed inside the police box. It made the headlines in 1972 but it had gone on for years and plagued police officers and traffic wardens alike.

One tiny area of Durham was affected

Yet the little island was the only spot in the heart of the city that had fallen foul of the smell.

Workmen were called in at intervals to probe the cause of the odour but without success.

One traffic warden said the smell was sometimes too much even with all of the windows and doors open, but no one seemed to know precisely what it was.

The powers-that-be decided that the operation was too much for one person to handle.

All replaced by CCTV

Instead, authorities brought in closed circuit television so whoever was in charge of the police box could have a view of the traffic in all directions.

That way, the traffic lights could be controlled in a way that allowed the flow to be much more regulated, the Sunderland Echo reported.

Tell us if you remember the little box which controlled so much of Durham’s traffic. Email [email protected].