Why is Scotland Yard so called?

The name of the police headquarters is derived from its original location on Great Scotland Yard, a street within Whitehall. According to a 1964 article in The New York Times, the name derives from buildings in the area used to accommodate Scottish kings when they visited English royalty. The original commissioners of the Metropolitan police, Colonel Charles Rowan and Richard Mayne, worked out of a private house at 4 Whitehall Place, which backed onto an open courtyard that came to be known as Scotland Yard.