Phone Booth
pictures, photos, facts and information on Phone Booth (Oxford)
The red phone booth is as typical for England as red double-deckers and black taxies for London. It is a public telephone kiosk that can be seen on the streets of the United Kingdom and Malta.
The red phone box is called also K6 (Kiosk number 6) and it was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935. It was connected with the celebration on King George V silver jubilee. However the king died before the phone boxes were installed. Between the years 1936 and 1968 some 70,000 of them were installed around the United Kingdom. It was the first red designed phone booth distributed outside London.
K6 was the sixth design of British telephone box. The very first phone box was designed in 1920 and it was completely different from the present ones. K2 was designed in 1924 because the previous one was not acceptable to London Metropolitan Boroughs. It was the modified version of Giles Gilbert Scott’s design made of cast iron. K3 came into existence in 1930, with design was similar, but it was made of concrete and therefore cheaper. K1 and K3 were cream, K2 was red. K4 designed in 1927 incorporated a post box and machines for buying postage stamps on the exterior. There were only 50 of them built. K5 was a plywood construction introduced in 1934 and designed for being presented at exhibitions, so it never came into use on streets.
In 1952 Queen Elizabeth II decided to use a representation of the actual crown generally used for British coronations, the St Edward's Crown instead of the “Tudor Crown”. This new symbol began to appear on K6. In Scotland a representation of the actual Crown of Scotland was used instead. Since then, the fascia sections were cast with a slot in them, into which a plate bearing the appropriate crown was inserted before the roof section was fitted.
After the privatization of Post Office Telephone’s a new design was introduced. Some 2000 red phone boxes were given listed status and many were left on low-revenue rural sites but many thousands were sold off.
The red phone box is called also K6 (Kiosk number 6) and it was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935. It was connected with the celebration on King George V silver jubilee. However the king died before the phone boxes were installed. Between the years 1936 and 1968 some 70,000 of them were installed around the United Kingdom. It was the first red designed phone booth distributed outside London.
K6 was the sixth design of British telephone box. The very first phone box was designed in 1920 and it was completely different from the present ones. K2 was designed in 1924 because the previous one was not acceptable to London Metropolitan Boroughs. It was the modified version of Giles Gilbert Scott’s design made of cast iron. K3 came into existence in 1930, with design was similar, but it was made of concrete and therefore cheaper. K1 and K3 were cream, K2 was red. K4 designed in 1927 incorporated a post box and machines for buying postage stamps on the exterior. There were only 50 of them built. K5 was a plywood construction introduced in 1934 and designed for being presented at exhibitions, so it never came into use on streets.
In 1952 Queen Elizabeth II decided to use a representation of the actual crown generally used for British coronations, the St Edward's Crown instead of the “Tudor Crown”. This new symbol began to appear on K6. In Scotland a representation of the actual Crown of Scotland was used instead. Since then, the fascia sections were cast with a slot in them, into which a plate bearing the appropriate crown was inserted before the roof section was fitted.
After the privatization of Post Office Telephone’s a new design was introduced. Some 2000 red phone boxes were given listed status and many were left on low-revenue rural sites but many thousands were sold off.