So British .......... The Telephone Box

Occasionally we will talk about things .......

Today ..."The Telephone Box"

The first typical English phone booth was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott for a competition in 1924. Sir Giles won the competition and named his design the "K2" which was later introduced to the streets in 1926. Several variations on the design followed later on, eight variants in total were introduced between 1921 and 1968 when the public telephone network was part of the General Post Office, however the design that was more successful was the "K2". The colour red was chosen so that the telephone booths would stand out and be easily recognizable.

The Telephone Box has become an icon of British design, alongside the black taxi and the Routemaster bus. It is part of British heritage and identity but despite this, with the development of modern mobile technologies and increased ownership of Smartphone’s the red Telephone Box is under threat, with numbers declining. In the 80s there were over 70,000 on the streets, but today there is as little as 200 examples remain on British streets. Such a shame!