This is one of Mum and Dad’s phone box finds while out on their travels – it’s another one from Devon.
(Coordinates 50°77’08.5″N, 3°94’86.0″W.)
Interestingly, this box and its surroundings appear to have been tidied up a bit between the Google Street View photo in April 2017 and the September 2018 photo above! New coat of paint from what I can see. Nice to see a council doing proper phone box maintenance.
We spotted this phone box while in Newburgh for Jen’s birthday party back in January. Dad took a photo as we walked back to the hotel.
(Coordinates 53°58’57.8″N, 2°78’16.6″W.)
It’s very rare these days to see a phone box that still lights up at night. It must be being maintained by some very considerate council workers!
Google Translate tells me that ‘het haasje’ translates as ‘the hare’. Google Maps, meanwhile, tells me that lots of roads are called ‘Het Haasje’ in the Netherlands. There is clearly a linguistic quirk at play here that I’m not quite getting.
Anyway, these two phone boxes were discovered by Mum and Dad in a petrol station cafe while travelling through Maarheeze.
(Coordinates 51°32’25.5″N, 5°59’36.4″E.)
If you click on the Google Street View link above, you can just about see the two red boxes through the window on the right hand side of the cafe.
It’s always interesting to see classic red phone boxes in non-UK locations. Surprising that these ones have found themselves in a Dutch petrol station cafe!
This nice duo of phone boxes were again found by Mum and Dad while out and about in Wigan. Lucky, too, because due to the dilapidated state of Wigan town centre, they don’t want to go there again!
(Coordinates 53°54’55.0″N, 2°63’23.0″W.)
These two stand outside Wigan Post Office, which is apparently at risk of closure. Like phone boxes, post offices get no respect in the 21st century.
This is another phone box that Mum and Dad spotted while out on their travels.
(Coordinates 50°27’02.4″N, 4°78’79.7″W.)
This is another good example of the ‘two-for-one’ phone box and postbox combo. It’s also got one of those ’00s updates that gave phone boxes basic email functionality, making it marginally more useful for the 21st century.
I have no idea how Mum and Dad keep finding the tiniest, remotest villages in England to stay in (it’s possibly by means of the CAMRA Good Pub Guides that Geth used to give them for Christmas), but they’re certainly good places to find phone boxes!
(Coordinates 50°85’57.7″N, 4°03’31.9″W.)
It’s always nice to see a phone box with a handy postbox next to it. Every means of 20th century communication in the one place. Unless you want that newfangled internet stuff, in which case you’re out of luck.
This is another phone box that Mum and Dad spotted at Loch Katrine, this time by the eco lodges near the loch.
(Coordinates 56°23’51.1″N, 4°42’88.9″W.)
The box is a bit bashed up, but it’s in a lovely setting. Those lodges actually sound quite nice!
It’s another of Mum and Dad’s phone box spots!
(Coordinates 56°23’36.5″N, 4°42’86.4″W.)
Interestingly, there are several photos of this phone box online that indicate it was only turned into a defibrillator box at some point between 2016 and 2018. Trossachs Pier is in the middle of nowhere and there seems to be a lot of cycling and other activity going on, so this could be a very useful development.
Another one from Loch Katrine next week.
This is another phone box that Mum and Dad spotted while on holiday – this time in Canada.
(Coordinates 44°17’69.7″N, 81°63’68.2″W.)
When UK councils first started getting rid of red phone boxes, a lot of them got sold abroad as tourist attractions, which is why you sometimes find them outside the UK. Better that someone appreciates them this way than they get thrown into the creepy red phone box graveyard (although I have to confess I would like to visit that graveyard one day).
Something closer to home next week!
Update 2nd April 2026: added coordinate link (and, interestingly, the sign on the side of the pub had changed by 2024).
Today’s phone box is one that Mum and Dad found in Dumfries and Galloway.
(Coordinates 54°91’64.3″N, 3°96’43.2″W.)
Interesting to see that only one of the ‘Telephone’ panels at the top has been replaced with a ’90s-era replacement panel – usually you find that all four get replaced so that it matches more neatly. The phone box is generally in okay condition, but the paint on the door has got very worn.
Incidentally, Google Street View’s image is from April 2009 – that’s nearly a decade ago, so I suppose the Google cars don’t get out into the Scottish countryside very often! – and it’s nice to see that between 2009 and 2016, the phone box’s door was put back on. Well done, Dumfries and Galloway council – nice to see an attempt at phone box upkeep! Maybe you could give it a new coat of paint as well, though?
Update 2nd April 2026: updated coordinate link (the Google cars did eventually return in 2021!).