The red telephone box is, with the double decker bus and the Union Flag, one of the three objects that instantly signal “Britain” anywhere in the world. It is also, as a telephone, entirely finished.
Who designed it
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, one of the most distinguished British architects of his generation — he also designed Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station and Waterloo Bridge — won a competition in 1924 to design a kiosk acceptable to planning authorities, who had objected to earlier concrete versions as ugly.
His K2 design took its domed roof from the tomb of the architect Sir John Soane. He proposed it in silver with a greenish interior; the Post Office overruled him and specified currant red so the boxes could be spotted easily.
The K6
The version most people picture is the K6, a smaller and cheaper redesign produced for the Silver Jubilee of George V in 1935. Around 60,000 were installed, putting one within reach of most of the population, and it is the K6 that became the icon.
The crown in the top panels is worth looking at: boxes in Scotland carry the Scottish crown rather than the English one, following an objection that the royal cypher used elsewhere was not correct for Scotland.
Why they survived
Mobile phones made kiosks redundant, and BT began removing them in enormous numbers. Public objection was fierce enough that a preservation programme followed: several thousand K2s and K6s are now listed buildings, legally protected from removal.
Adopt a Kiosk
BT’s scheme lets communities buy a decommissioned box for £1 on condition they keep it and put it to use. Thousands have been taken up, and the results are among the more charming things in rural Britain:
- Defibrillator cabinets — by far the most common, and several thousand exist. They have saved lives.
- Book exchanges — a village library the size of a wardrobe.
- Art galleries, coffee stands, salad bars and information points.
- In Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, one operates as a nightclub with a capacity of four.
Finding one to photograph
The most photographed row in Britain is on Broad Court beside the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden — five boxes in a line. The other classic shot is the row on Parliament Square with Big Ben behind. Be prepared to queue for both, politely.
The TARDIS
Worth noting that the blue box in Doctor Who is not a telephone box but a police box — a different object entirely, used by officers to contact their station. They vanished from British streets by the 1970s and survive in the public mind almost entirely because of the television programme.