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When a Yahoo! search on Scotland Yard led us to London's Metropolitan Police service at their New Scotland Yard headquarters, we figured we were only clicks away from your answer. One of the questions on the site read "Why is our headquarters building called Scotland Yard?" Eagerly, we clicked on the link, only to be rewarded with the dreaded "Requested Page Not Found" message. Then the real sleuthing began. We devised a search for Google consisting of three keywords -- "scotland yard origin." The first result looked promising. An article
from Compton's Encyclopedia introduced us to the world-renowned London police force, which was established in 1829 and had its first administrative headquarters at No. 4 Whitehall, a street in Westminster, in a neighborhood of government buildings. Out back was a plot of land long known as Great Scotland Yard where a public entrance was built. The origin of the name Scotland Yard is not certain. One theory mentions that the land was once owned by a Mr. Adam Scot, while another suggests that the land had been set aside as a London residence for the Kings of Scotland, which was never built. Early in the 17th century, noted architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren lived in a house on the site, as did poet John Milton. By 1887, the Yard was running out of space, and a new building
was constructed on the Thames Embankment. After numerous expansions, New Scotland Yard was built in 1967 on Victoria Street. We found a picture of this modern office building at Britannica.com's Scotland Yard entry, which mentioned that Great Scotland Yard had in fact been the site of a London palace used by visiting Scottish kings in medieval times. Consider the case still open.
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