Today’s phone box is another one that Mum and Dad found while exploring Shetland in August.
(Coordinates 59°94’38.9″N, 1°32’61.2″W.)
It needs a pane replacing but is otherwise in relatively good condition.
More from Shetland next week!
(Or perhaps ‘Phone Boxing Day’? Yes? Yes? No?)
This is another phone box from Shetland that Mum and Dad found while they were out for a drive this summer.
(Coordinates 60°25’32.3″N, 1°40’24.3″W.)
It’s interesting to compare the Google Street View image (which is probably about a decade old – the Google cars don’t visit rural Scotland very often!) with the photo from this summer. The paint on the phone box needs a touch-up, and the nearby bench has been painted red and moved to sit next to the phone box.
What’s even more interesting, however, is comparing both images with this photo from the family archives, taken in July 1991:
The phone box was a lot more well-kept twenty-eight years ago. I suppose it was probably seeing a lot more use!
To round off this Phone Boxing Day post, Anne recently sent me a link to a nice Christmas update about the Rainford phone box she’d photographed for me earlier this year:
I have so many more phone boxes to share with you all in 2020. Thanks for following along so far!
Another Shetland phone box for you today. This one was found by Mum and Dad while out exploring the mainland.
(Coordinates 60°24’26.2″N, 1°34’62.3″W.)
This is another one where the ‘Telephone’ sign has been strangely blurred out by Google Street View – I’m guessing their software is misidentifying it as a car licence plate.
The box is surviving well, if a little patchy and overgrown!
This is a phone box I walked past a lot of times while in Shetland this summer. It sits nicely at the south end of Commercial Street in Lerwick, just before you get to the shops.
(Coordinates 60°15’31.2″N, 1°14’15.7″W.)
The paint could do with a bit of a touch-up but it still appears to have a phone inside!
I’ve got a few more phone boxes from Shetland to share over the next few weeks.
Update September 2025: paint has been touched up!
Here’s a rural Dumfriesshire phone box that Mum and Dad found back in the summer.
(Coordinates 54°98’26.5″N, 3°77’06.4″W.)
Looking at the Google Street View image, it seems that pretty much nothing has changed about this phone box (or its surroundings) in the last ten years (well, apart from the small detail of the phone inside having been removed)… which is kind of nice!
This is another phone box from Lancashire that Anne sent me. She tells me she used to use this one in the 1950s, so I think it’s nice that it’s still standing!
(Coordinates 53°49’90.3″N, 2°78’52.4″W.)
This one seems to be quite well maintained. (This article mentions a phone box in Rainford that’s been turned into a defibrillator box, but I’m not sure if it’s the same one or not!)
These very smart phone boxes, which flank the St Helens town hall, were sent to me by Anne back in the summer.
(Coordinates 53°45’37.0″N, 2°73’56.5″W.)
It’s nice to see that these phone boxes are such a feature of the town hall front area. They look lovely in the sunshine too!
Time to start logging the family phone box contributions from this year! Anne sent me a snap of this phone box that was shown on TV back in the spring.
(Coordinates 58°20’23.4″N, 5°33’82.3″W.)
The Google Street View image above, from 2011, shows the phone box in a state of disrepair with its door missing. It seems to have been replaced by the time of shooting the TV programme (at least, I hope the Google image predates the filming!). There’s also a picture online of the box in its spruced-up state.
The phone box is actually in Stoer rather than Clachtoll (Stoer is the next village up), so I’m guessing the Clachtoll residents had to go for a bit of a walk back in the day!
I’m still sorting out my giant collection of phone boxes that I’ve not yet posted (the family, especially Dad, have been very helpful in sending me lots of phone box pictures this year!). As such, as I’m now gradually starting to think about Christmas, I thought that today I’d share this gorgeous table decoration that Anne sent me a picture of last Christmas. Thanks Anne!
I love this Christmas decoration and might start hunting online for something similar!
Back to the full-size boxes next week.
One last phone box from Edinburgh on the day of the EMF 10k!
(Coordinates 55°95’02.8″N, 3°18’66.6″W.)
Edinburgh is one of those city centres with quite a lot of red phone boxes. There are still a few about town that I’ve not got round to photographing yet!
