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A Great British Design Classic: the telephone box

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Yet another reality show came to an end last week, with Jermain Jackman being crowned king on The Voice. But these public competitions – from singing to cooking to interior designing to baking to skating – are nothing new. Did you know, for instance, that one of the country’s most iconic landmarks and design icons, Tower Bridge, was actually the winning design of a public competition in 1876?

And that’s not the only Great British design icon to have come into being as a result of this competition. I’m talking about the distinctive red telephone boxes which are dotted around the country’s streets.

'The Post Office decided that everyone in the country should have easy access to a telephone...'

The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell predicted that, one day, every town in America would have a telephone. And at the time, he thought he may have been slightly cocky to suggest that. But back in 1923, in a bid to improve our communications, the Post Office decided that everyone in the country should have easy access to a telephone – hence their national competition to find a suitable design in which to house them.

The winner, Giles Gilbert Scott, was no stranger to the design game. In fact, he came from quite a pedigree. He had already designed Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral and one of my favourite buildings in the capital: Battersea Power Station (the current refurbishment of which, incidentally, I’m very excited about).

'Giles Gilbert Scott originally wanted his telephone boxes to be silver.'

Although the design was of course ultimately approved, Giles Gilbert Scott originally wanted his telephone boxes to be silver. But the Post Office insisted on the colour ‘BS381C’, or ‘currant red’, so that they were more visible in the case of emergencies.

With the first kiosks hitting the streets back in 1935, there were 60,000 of these instantly recognisable design classics across the land. Surprising though it may be, even as recently as 1980, a quarter of all households in Britain didn’t have a phone. They were certainly much more widely used as a matter of course, and I for one remember using them every time I needed picking up from school.

Now, however, most of us use mobiles and the phone boxes have been gradually falling further and further into disrepair – to the extent that some people may only climb into them to escape a hail storm. Consequently, there are fewer than 10,000 of these original telephone boxes remaining on our streets.

Back in the day, though, they were so popular that we exported them all over the world, to such far-flung places as Granada, Bermuda, Malta and Buenos Aires.

Today, on an industrial estate in Newark, Nottinghamshire, there is a refurbishment plant (the only one of its kind in the country) that brings these old telephone boxes back to their former glory. Those that are too far gone and can’t be refurbished are broken down for parts. It’s a labour of love and a time-consuming process – one that involves not only refurbishing the frame but also adding the original dial telephone, ashtray, mirror and exchange information.

Only 5% of these newly-refurbished telephone boxes find their way back onto the streets of Britain, however. As for the other 95%, they are sold privately to anybody who can afford a slice of history and a true Great British design classic.

by Ashley Morrison

Ashley is a copywriter, editor and blogger

Follow him on Twitter

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