并不陌生的“苏格兰场”是什么？

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of the British capital, London. The Metropolitan Police Service is responsible for law enforcement within Greater London, excluding the square mile of the City of London, which is covered by the City of London Police. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became the public entrance to the police station. Over time, the street and the Metropolitan Police became synonymous. The Metropolitan Police moved away from Scotland Yard in 1890, and the name "New Scotland Yard" was adopted for the new headquarters.

苏格兰场是对英国首都伦敦警察厅总部的代称。苏格兰场负责维持包括整个大伦敦地区的公共治安及交通秩序，但伦敦市除外，该区的警务由伦敦市警察管辖。“苏格兰场”的得名，源于警察厅的旧址白厅广场4号。据说，当时警察厅在此处设有一扇后门，正对着一处名为“大苏格兰场”的地方(小编注：Great Scotland Yard，该处可能是苏格兰和英格兰合并组成联合王国之前，苏格兰国王访问英格兰时使用的宫殿或苏格兰王国驻英格兰大使使用的宫殿)。此后，这扇门就成了警察厅的公共入口。久而久之，“苏格兰场”就成了伦敦警察厅的代名词。1890年，警察厅搬离苏格兰场地区，现在所说的“新苏格兰场”也就是对警察厅新总部的别称。

Scotland Yard has become internationally famous as a symbol of policing, and detectives from Scotland Yard feature in many works of crime fiction. They were frequent allies, and sometimes antagonists, of Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous stories. It is also referred to in Around the World in Eighty Days. In the James Bond novels and short stories, Assistant Commissioner Sir Ronald Vallance is a recurring fictional character who works for Scotland Yard.

作为警察的代名词，苏格兰场出现在许多侦探探案类小说中，由此而蜚声国际。在柯南-道尔的小说中，苏格兰场的警察们与大侦探福尔摩斯的关系也是亦敌亦友。苏格兰场在小说《环游世界80天》中也有出现。在邦德系列小说中，助理局长罗尼-瓦蓝斯多次出场，他也是为苏格兰场效力的。