Here’s a phone box I actually witnessed myself here in Newcastle!
(I won’t post the exact street or GPS coordinates as it looks like private property.)
This phone box is in a yard visible from the street; the owner of the yard is obviously a collector as they have a great collection of phone boxes and postboxes from various eras! It’s very rare to see a K2 box like this outside London.
More from Newcastle next week.
Here’s another phone box from Mum and Dad’s travels in Dumfries and Galloway.
(Coordinates 54°78’58.1″N, 4°57’10.5″W.)
Interestingly, the phone box has moved slightly relative to the telegraph pole since the Google cars visited in 2009.
The box is very prettily presented, with lots of flowerboxes surrounding it, but sadly it does not seem to have escaped the phone box cull that is sweeping the UK at the moment 🙁 This one, too, has a notice of imminent removal inside it.
Next week I’ll be posting a phone box that I found myself. For once!
Here’s another phone box from Mum and Dad’s adventures in Dumfries and Galloway.
(Coordinates 54°81’79.8″N, 4°48’55.4″W – roughly.)
Unfortunately the Google cars, on their one brief visit to rural Scotland in 2009, couldn’t be bothered to drive through Whauphill itself, so the Google Street View image above is as close as we can get. The phone box stands outside the village hall, the location of which is shown on this map – you can see it’s just around the corner from where the Street View coverage ends.
The phone box itself has been adopted by the local community, which is great as it means the box will stick around, though its purpose is so far unclear. Some clothes have been left in the box, so it may be being used as a donation point.
More from Scotland next week.
Here’s a Welsh phone box that Bill sent me a couple of months ago.
(Coordinates 53°28’19.4″N, 3°82’76.8″W.)
I always like to see a phone box re-used for a defibrillator – a useful and possibly life-saving update. This one is also in very picturesque surroundings!
Back to Scotland next week.
Update May 2024: still a defibrillator, but defib out of service as of September 2023.
Here’s another phone box from Mum and Dad’s Scottish adventures. No spooky colour changes this week!
(Coordinates 54°94’42.2″N, 4°85’23.7″W.)
At first glance, this seems like a locally-loved phone box. There are nice murals on the glass, a pot of flowers next to the box, and the inside features a shelf for swapping books in addition to the original phone. However, there’s also a notice inside informing occupants that the council is considering removing the box, so maybe the inpromptu re-use by locals isn’t official enough 🙁
From Scotland to Wales next week!
Another phone box from Mum and Dad’s Scottish adventures… but, somewhat appropriately for Hallowe’en month, there’s something a bit spooky going on with it!
(Coordinates 54°73’72.6″N, 4°55’02.6″W.)
Dad reports that there is (or was in August) still a phone inside the box, but also a ‘closing soon’ notice 🙁 Unfortunately it seems that this box will be disappearing shortly, along with about 90% of other rural boxes in the UK. It sort of feels like we’re documenting the end of an era at the moment.
That’s not the spooky thing though!
If you click the Google Street View image linked above, you’ll see the same image I saw when searching for the box:
However, if you then move slightly up the road (to the east, away from the A747 and onto the side street), the phone box suddenly turns green!
My immediate thought was that the box must have been repainted at some point. However, I’ve never seen a box repainted this shade of green in the UK – it’s apparently quite common for old phone boxes in the Republic of Ireland, but I was surprised to see one in the south-west of Scotland.
But then, if you move a step further…
…the phone box is suddenly red again – and it can’t be a repaint, because the exact same couple are still walking past the phone box with their dogs!
I was a bit freaked out by this and took a closer look. In the second picture with the green box, it also appears that the lady’s face has also turned green, making her look like the Witch of the West from The Wizard Of Oz (complete with Toto no less!). A similar thing has happened to a wooden shed and gate if you rotate the third image to look further up the road. As such, Geth and I have concluded that it must be some kind of strange effect from the camera used by the Google cars.
It’s still pretty spooky though!
We’ll stay in Scotland next week for another (hopefully less freaky) phone box.
Jen sent in this phone box photo from the Yorkshire Dales.
(Coordinates 54°06’16.8″N, 2°15’31.8″W.)
Bit of a well-worn example – the door looks very weathered and the base is falling to bits, and it seems to have declined into disrepair at a fairly quick rate since the Google image was taken. As such, I suspect this one might not be long for the world, sadly.
Back to Scotland next week.
Here’s another Scottish phone box found by Mum and Dad while out on their travels.
(Coordinates 56°33’19.5″N, 3°83’23.1″W.)
This one seems to be being used as a library/donations point. There are books and household supplies and jigsaw puzzles and all sorts in there.
I like to see phone boxes being reused by communities now that they are no longer needed for phones. Hopefully this one will escape the chop now that it’s been adopted.
Here’s another phone box that Mum and Dad found in Scotland this summer.
(Coordinates 56°37’55.3″N, 3°99’21.3″W.)
This box doesn’t have a phone in it, but otherwise seems relatively well-kept (and makes a very nice feature on the street corner with the accompanying postbox), so hopefully it won’t be disappearing in the near future.
One more from Scotland next week, and then we’ll be heading south again…
