London Red Phone Box - Historic Architecture, Beloved Icon, Reclaimed Treasure
Ranked #655 in Travel & Places, #28,810 overall
Red London Phone Box
By contrast, phone booths in the US were drab, functional and coldly industrial. I say were because we just don't see them around anymore. Who needs a public phone when everyone has a cell phone?
No matter how many cell phones there are, London will always have its red phone box because it is a thing of beauty and means so much more than a place to make a phone call.
But that almost wasn't the case. London and Great Britain almost ended up with phone booths as boring as America but were saved by one man's flash of brilliance that somehow managed to survive government bureaucracy.
Photo Credit: WarOnTomato on flickr, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
The Competition
The United Kingdom postal service had introduced the first phone boxes in 1920, but was having a hard time getting them accepted in the London boroughs. Hard to think people would rather have no phone in their neighborhood than an ugly box on the street, but that was the case.Various groups held their own competitions to try to find a better design for a standard British phone box, but (typical government bureaucracy) was told that the post office had was really preferred and they were just fine, thanks all the same. But the Birmingham Civic Society banded together with architect and planning groups and put pressure on the postal service until it agreed to hold its own competition to pick a new phone box design. Thank goodness.
Three architects were invited to submit designs to be judged up against the post office designs and ideas from the Birmingham group. The Royal Fine Arts Commission served as judge for the contest and picked Giles Gilbert Scott's design as the winner.
Photo: Red Telephone Box Trafalgar Square London Art Poster
Did Ya Know?
Scott's K2 design as executed was made of cast iron and weighed three quarters of a ton.
Photo Credit: BePak on flickr, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
Red Phone Booth Figure Silver Cufflinks
Red Phone Booth Figure Silver Cufflinks
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English Breakfast Tea in Red Telephone Box Tin
Ahmad English Breakfast Tea in Red Telephone Box Tin 25 Teabags
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The Variations
The phone boxes (or kiosks) actually went through several changes over the years. The original much-hated design was designated K1 and all the others follow from there. Scott's winning design was K2 and he had a hand in designing K3 as well.One big change between K2 and K3 was the manner of construction. K3 was made of concrete rather than cast iron and much cheaper, making it more practical for widespread use. K4 was designed by the post office engineers and incorporated (gasp!) a post box and a stamp machine, but wasn't used much. K5 was designed for temporary installation and just made of plywood as a result.
Which brings us to K6, the box we're familiar with today. It came into service in 1935 to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V. (Yes, it's a little off that he didn't get to have the K5 design instead.) This is the one that was deployed throughout the British empire, replacing most of the existing boxes. There were 73,000 of these around the world by 1980. Wow.
There were attempts to create new designs after this one - K7 never made it to production and K8 was only used for new sites, although it did introduce a new shade of red eventually used for all phone boxes.
Photo: London Red Phone Telephone Booth Door Poster Print - 21x62
Red London Telephone Booth Door Poster
Red London Telephone Booth Door Poster 21x62 Art 18589 Collections Door Poster Print, 20x62
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Did Ya Know?
Scott's prototypes were wooden and actually put to use. You can still see one today at the Royal Academy entrance arch.
The Color
It's hard to picture a London phone box in anything other than red. But the first designs were actually in cream and the K3 also came in cream. But the K2, which started it all, was painted red even though Scott's design called for it to be silver.The post office choose red so the box would stand out from its surroundings - particularly green trees - to make it easy to find, especially in case of emergency. Red sounds like such a daring color choice for a government agency, though! When the K6 came out, it was the first box to really be used throughout the kingdom and there were a lot of protests over the red color. People thought it was too loud, too bright, too much. So the post office gave in and let them paint theirs cream or gray with red on the window bars. (Ironically, as the red phone box gained iconic status, many of these were repainted entirely red.)
The K8 introduced in 1968 brought a new shade with it called "Poppy Red" and eventually became the standard color even though the K8 box never became the standard box.
Photo: Red London Phone Boxes Poster 24x36
How Important is Red?
British Red Telephone Box Silver Cufflinks
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British Red Telephone Box Designs
Get them on just about anything over at Zazzle
Let's keep in touch POSTCARD Postage! by WobblegateCottage
London On The Phone by marksda1
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Vintage British Red Telephone Box iPhone 4 Case by On_The_Case
London Phone Booth Vinyl Wall Decal
Phone Booth Vinyl Wall Decal Sticker Graphic By LKS Trading Post
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Red Phone Box Art
London Phone Box Urban Art Canvas Print
Available with white or black border
By Artist Michael Tompsett
Choose from seven sizes
Bratz: World London Pretty in Punk Phone Booth
Bratz: World London Pretty in Punk Phone Booth
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Red Phone Booth Room Divider
London Red Phone Booth Room Divider
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London Art Poster Print
(12x36) London (Red Triptych, Post Box, Bus, Phonebooth) Art Poster Print
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2012 London Commemorative Calendar
London Calendar 2012
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British Red Phone Box Cabinet
Southern Enterprises MS1367 Phone Booth Cabinet
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This unique cabinet has plenty of space to store your movies and music. This cabinet can hold up to 290 CDs or 136 DVDs. This cabinet is made from MDF with a red finish and has acrylic doors and sides.
Red Letterbox and Telephone Box in the Snow
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London Telephone Booth Art Poster Print
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Tiny British Red Phone Box
Dept 56 Accessories English Phone Booth
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Size: 1.75" x 1.75" x 3.35". Introduced: 2008. Dept 56 Accessories English Phone Booth #D56-810815 - Town Buildings
London 6 Red Phoneboxes Print
(12x36) London 6 Red Phoneboxes Telephone Booths Art Print Poster
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London 4 Red Phoneboxes Print
(24x36) London 4 Red Phoneboxes Telephone Booths Art Print Poster
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London Landmarks Art Poster Print
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Classic British Red Telephone Box Cutout
Classic British Red Telephone Box - Miscellaneous Large Cardboard Cutout / Standee / Standup
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British London Red Telephone Box Lamp
Best of British London Red Telephone Box Lamp, Table lamp
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Old English Telephone Booth LED Table Light
Old English Telephone Booth LED Table Light
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Did Ya Know?
Not everyone in the empire fell under the GPO's domain and so there were K6 boxes painted with yellow, blue, white and cream over the years.
Comments or questions?
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simpsonia
May 6, 2012 @ 2:52 pm | delete
- Lovely selection of red telephone box gifts.
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lovetouring
May 23, 2011 @ 8:46 am | delete
- There's a fantastic piece of artwork in Kingston where there are 12 or so phone boxes, tipped over in a dominoes effect. Makes for a great photo and Kingstons a lovely place to visit, with lots of history; the university and some great shopping centres.
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poddys
Apr 12, 2011 @ 4:22 am | delete
- Great lens. They tried to do away with these and replaced them by horrible newer designs, but thankfully many of the originals were saved by collectors, and they are still to be seen on the streets in the cities. Of course public phones are not as necessary as they once were, with everyone having a mobile phone these days, but the red phone boxes are part of our British Heritage. Blessings coming your way.
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lovetouring
May 23, 2011 @ 8:44 am | delete
- Unfortunatly they are often poorly maintained and in dire need of restoration and some TLC.
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