Where are all the UK red telephone kiosks?

The box in Meols, Merseyside has been turned in a small museum honoring the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The box was their makeshift booking office in the early days and the box's number (6323003) was used in the song "Red Frame White Light"

"To this day, it is still likely the highest-charting song entirely about a public phone box."

https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2022/08/30/meols-merseyside-c...

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/omd-telephone-box

I love seeing the occasional phone box in a quaint village which has been converted into a super compact library. It reminds me that community spirit and trust are alive.

If curious why I posted this:

  - someone told me about a fish—n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland
  - I told my team, one of them asked “just fish?”
  - I replied “batter fried pizza too”
  - one of them made the inevitable comment about defibrillators
  - I pointed out many of these red kiosks have been repurposed to hold defibrillators and went looking for images

I was just thinking how it'd be great if there were newer, modern things like this that had sprung up in response to newer technologies.

I guess it's one downside of dematerialisation with digital tech - I can't think of a single thing that would make sense. Everyone's got their own virtual portal to all the new technologies that come out, there's not much to look at out in the world.

Maybe as more progress happens in physical 'world of atoms' type things we'll see a bit of this come back.

The ones in Hull are all cream coloured: https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2023/07/13/hull-university-ea...

The crowns are also ground off I think

Nice! Would be great if this had a map view as well.

There's one near the Houses of Parliament, tourists often shoot photos there, and are surprised when the inside is filled with stickers advertising prostitutes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zLRxTFUXErcsrkCi7

I love seeing the occasional phone box in a quaint village which has been converted into a super compact library. It reminds me that community spirit and trust are alive.

"To this day, it is still likely the highest-charting song entirely about a public phone box."

https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2022/08/30/meols-merseyside-c...

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/omd-telephone-box

There's one near the Houses of Parliament, tourists often shoot photos there, and are surprised when the inside is filled with stickers advertising prostitutes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zLRxTFUXErcsrkCi7

To be fair, that's the authentic London telephone box experience of old.

I think the actual experience was stepping into human poo, needles and overwhelming stench of piss and let's not go into why the telephone was sticky.

Nice! Would be great if this had a map view as well.

The ones in Hull are all cream coloured: https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2023/07/13/hull-university-ea...

The crowns are also ground off I think

https://www.kcom.com/about-us/history/ they were operated by a separate company, so the crown wasn't appropriate.

If curious why I posted this:

  - someone told me about a fish—n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland
  - I told my team, one of them asked “just fish?”
  - I replied “batter fried pizza too”
  - one of them made the inevitable comment about defibrillators
  - I pointed out many of these red kiosks have been repurposed to hold defibrillators and went looking for images

> someone told me about a fish-n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland

if it’s the fish and chip shop (buffet is a different thing here), i’ve been there and they do a banging fish supper.

I was just thinking how it'd be great if there were newer, modern things like this that had sprung up in response to newer technologies.

Maybe as more progress happens in physical 'world of atoms' type things we'll see a bit of this come back.

Some suggestions:

- Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries

- Power bank "banks" or charging stations for smartphones in indoor spaces like malls

- QR codes on stickers/ads in public spaces are a sort of bridge between the physical and digital worlds

As someone that tries to survive (every day more difficult) with just a dumbphone with me, I just fantasized about a parallel universe where all those kiosks still existed, and they were somehow like computer that you can briefly rent, to do the things people do with a smartphone. Perhaps you tap a card, and it picks your accounts, and you can quickly Whatsapp someone, check your email, call an Uber or use Google Maps (maybe even check hacker news, but with time limit?!)

Maybe then many people would stop carrying their own portals, as you can briefly use the public ones for the one-off situation where you need it, but enjoy a portal-free mind the rest of the time. Also quite useful in case emergencies as it seems those portable-portals tend to run out of battery, or get lost or damaged...

How about:

  - tap-to-pay paypoints
  - drive-under toll collection readers
  - signal-blocking phone pouches at concerts
  - anti-facial-recognition dazzle makeup
  - wireless chargers in the table at McDonald’s

Tesla Supercharger stations.

To be fair, that's the authentic London telephone box experience of old.

I think the actual experience was stepping into human poo, needles and overwhelming stench of piss and let's not go into why the telephone was sticky.

https://www.kcom.com/about-us/history/ they were operated by a separate company, so the crown wasn't appropriate.

Tesla Supercharger stations.

How about:

  - tap-to-pay paypoints
  - drive-under toll collection readers
  - signal-blocking phone pouches at concerts
  - anti-facial-recognition dazzle makeup
  - wireless chargers in the table at McDonald’s

Some suggestions:

- Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries

- Power bank "banks" or charging stations for smartphones in indoor spaces like malls

- QR codes on stickers/ads in public spaces are a sort of bridge between the physical and digital worlds

> someone told me about a fish-n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland

if it’s the fish and chip shop (buffet is a different thing here), i’ve been there and they do a banging fish supper.

I think OP is referring to this https://www.thebellrock.co.uk/lunch-buffet which does appear to be a fish-n-chip buffet of sorts (amongst other things) which has been in various tabloid newspapers in the last month or so.

Hello and welcome to the K6 project, a personal adventure to travel the length and breadth of the UK finding old red telephone kiosks, they used to be everywhere before mobile telephones became the prevalent form of telecommunication.

As kiosks are decommissioned from public phone usage the risk of removal of the kiosk is very likely unless they are adopted and repurposed.

I want to find out what those new purposes are, who adopted the kiosk and what stories lay behind its usage (both previously and today)

I have been visiting kiosks and have found may varying usages from defibrillator site, recycling centres, local book exchanges or local village guides.

In rural Britain the usage of the kiosks appear ‘local centric’ and its these that I wish to explore in greater detail, both here online, as a database and social media for a more personal look at the kiosk its use and location.

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Where are all the UK red telephone kiosks?

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