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Telephone Boxes/Kiosks

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GusB

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I've been doing a bit of reading into the various designs of telephone boxes. I can't remember exactly what triggered it, but I'm sure you know how "internet tangents" go! I'm mindful of a recent BBC news article reporting that BT are consulting on the next batch to be culled, and I found myself going out to check to see that we still had one here in the village. It's definitely still there, but it's one of those on the the hit list.

I can't remember the last time I used a telephone box. I obtained my first mobile phone in the very late nineties, but it was still quite expensive to run. Cross-network calls were still prohibitively expensive, and it was generally cheaper to call a landline from a call-box than from the mobile. I also had a BT Chargecard (home calls only) which I used to contact my folks. I do recall phoning from a public call-box and noting that the minimum charge was 40p - perhaps this was the tipping point for me.

My earliest recollections of phone boxes are from when my mum used to take me out to phone my grandparents. We didn't have a landline in the house then. The coin denominations accepted were 2p and 5p. The nearest box was a K6, but occasionally there would be a queue to use it; the closest alternative was a K8 - a design that I preferred due to its more "modern" look.

In my early student years (1992-3), we had rows of phone boxes at our halls complex, and often I'd walk a considerable distance to avoid queuing to make a call.

I'd be interested to hear other people's stories and views. I totally understand why BT wants to get rid of public telephone boxes, especially now that most of us now have mobiles. I was about to say that it'll be a sad day when our village loses it's phone box, but I had to double-check that it hadn't already gone!
 
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Peter Mugridge

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Is the one in your village a traditional one, i.e. a K6 type? I can't share your preference for the K8 - and I absolutely hate the KX series...
 

GusB

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Is the one in your village a traditional one, i.e. a K6 type? I can't share your preference for the K8 - and I absolutely hate the KX series...
No, it's a boring KX100 - sadly the two K6s disappeared a good few years ago, and only one was replaced. There was one in a small hamlet a few years ago that I had used on at least two occasions (to call the RAC), and I was sad to note that it had also gone. There are more red kiosks used as garden ornaments than there are working phone boxes.
 

Cowley

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Is the one in your village a traditional one, i.e. a K6 type? I can't share your preference for the K8 - and I absolutely hate the KX series...
We had a mixture of the two types in Topsham where I grew up. I think I would’ve noted the modern looking one at the time, but there were a couple of the old ones in around that were just part of a classic scene like this one just off The Strand:
59C84AF3-FADB-493A-A0A0-301F2376A8B9.jpeg

I used to know the number of at least three of them off by heart, and I’m sure plenty of others can remember hanging around outside one waiting for a friend to ring you at the appointed time, and then feeling a slight sense of rising panic as someone else toddled up to it looking for change in their pockets 30 seconds before it was due to ring?

Edit - That one’s still there by the way, I’m not sure who Mrs C is pretending to ring though. Perhaps the fisherman, or maybe Buzby?
 

thejuggler

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I remember collecting empty phone cards as we found a way of getting more credit out of them for nothing.

I've just been in North west Scotland where there are still plenty of phone boxes and they have phone books!
 

STEVIEBOY1

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I remember collecting empty phone cards as we found a way of getting more credit out of them for nothing.

I've just been in North west Scotland where there are still plenty of phone boxes and they have phone books!

Can't be many phone books left now.

Some of the unused calls boxes, are used as little book stores and other things. I just remember them having buttons A and B.
 
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