Question

[m31andy]

Research question - can anyone help?

It's London, 1982, and you want to leave, say, a small amount of cash, an A4 envelope/file full of 'state secrets' and a passport in a location which is accessable at all times, is not too difficult to get into, but is safe enough. Ideally security would be of the "if you have the key you can open it" as I require a third party to be able to access it (with the key, of course) It also needs to be fairly long term.

What would you use?

I suspect lockers at stations (esp. Waterloo and Victoria) would've been in the process of being removed at this time, and even if they were still available, you couldn't get away with having a key to one for three years, could you? They were strictly short term only.

PO Boxes aren't, apparently, actual boxes, unlike in the States and elsewhere. (Which is annoying because they are rather cool, actually!) Has that always been the case?

Bank safety deposit boxes, at least now, are too difficult to get into, require too much ID.

Gym/swimming lockers, I suppose aren't accessable 24 hours? Tempted to use a bathhouse (*g*) but also suspect that you'd definitely not get away with long-term use of the locker and/or the proprietor turning a blind eye to you using it, wouldn't be so impressed when other 'gents' start using it as well.

Thoughts?

Oh, and ta muchly!

Oh, oh - and if you can't guess what this is for, I'd be very, very surprised!

Comments

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I would suggest looking at the "left luggage" counter at somewhere like Paddington. I believe it's still in operation. All of that would fit nicely in to a small bag .

Victoria coach station too.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Lockers in large railway stations were still very common in 1982, and in many instances would have been accessible 24 hours, bearing in mind there were some places outside London that did actually have train services in the middle of the night - and in theory you could hold a key for as long as you like providing you kept paying after every time you opened it.

[irishkate.livejournal.com]

gym locker in a boxing club - paid for in advance to the manager?

[failing-angel.livejournal.com]

Possibly depending on the contents:

a) With a lawyer
b) If it's CI5, then what about tucked into the evidence room?
c) With a croney
d) Wasn't there an episode of the Professionals with a defector/spy returning to London to pick up some items he'd stashed away in the (now derelict) docklands?

[not-here.livejournal.com]

No help at all but really, in the UK PO Boxes aren't actual boxes? How can I not have known this, or at least not been surprised at the entire room full of them you get in US post offices - and UPS stores?

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

You're correct in thinking that PO Boxes are not actually boxes, merely a way of having mail sent to you without divulging your address. Mail could be held at the PO or delivered to an address in the same delivery area. And it wouldn't be 24-hour access either. I started work with the PO at the end of 82, and it was the case then, too.

Sounds intriguing *g*

[pixylatedpyxie.livejournal.com]

You can get boxes that look like they have gas and electric meters in, only they don't, on the outside of houses. When I was a kid we had one that locked with a key. The meters had been moved inside the house, but the box was still there, high up next to the front door, and no-one noticed it.