Category: Old Stuff

No phone box to log this week, but there have been a few in the news this year.

BT is making more boxes available for the Adopt-A-Kiosk community scheme. I hadn’t realised that communities that want to turn their phone box into a mini library, art gallery or (my personal favourite) defibrillator box only need to pay £1. Hope to see more of these converted boxes, as this is really where phone boxes’ functional future lies.

In Lincoln, meanwhile, this one will cost you £6,000!

And these ones in London are an eye-watering £45,000… but you can’t move or alter them because as K2 boxes they are listed buildings (thankfully). An interesting comment at the bottom of the article from the secretary of the Community Heartbeat Trust charity (the defibrillator charity), which makes me optimistic for more defibrillator boxes.

Geth won’t let me be one of these people… yet. I’m working on it.

Mum and Dad photographed this phone box for me a couple of weeks ago.

(Coordinates 55°82’87.2″N, 3°27’31.0″W.)

This is a fairly well-kept one. The paint looks much fresher than most phone boxes, and there still seems to be a working phone inside. Hopefully it will be around for a while!

Update March 2022: I’ve recently heard that the Silverburn phone box has now been granted listed status! Here’s a Facebook post about it from one of the local MSPs. (I’ve also added the coordinates as apparently I forgot to do that when I first posted this one!)

Mum took a photo of these George Street phone boxes for me the other week. Edinburgh is looking summery in a particularly Edinburgh way! (Grey skies included, but mainly because of the marquees that are out so that people can dine al fresco in the drizzle.)

I haven’t visited these phone boxes in aaaages and am so glad to see they’re still standing proud!

I can’t wait to visit Edinburgh again.

Today we’re revisiting one of my very early phone box examples: Durham Green! (I have taken the opportunity to make some updates to that post.)

Fiona sent me a picture of the box as it is now, taken earlier this month. It’s now a defibrillator box!

I am so happy to see that this box now has a 21st century use! It’s one of my favourites in the north-east and I wouldn’t like to see Durham Cathedral without it.

Back up to Scotland next week…

Bill sent in this nice duo of phone boxes from outside a guest house in Yarm.

(Coordinates 54°50’99.1″N, 1°35’49.7″W.)

That paint looks a bit… painful to touch. Still, it seems that at least one of them still has a phone inside, so maybe it’s still used in those parts!

Here’s a phone box that we spotted while out on a family trip a couple of weeks ago, when Mum and Dad were visiting!

(Coordinates 54°95’65.7″N, 1°78’20.3″W.)

The phone box is a recent addition, as it doesn’t show up in the Street View image. It’s in the garden of a location that looks like a B&B or similar. It would certainly make a good B&B location as the phone box would be a real talking point!

It doesn’t look like a working box – it’s being used as an aesthetic feature. Which is certainly a better use than being scrapped, like so many phone boxes sadly are these days!

Mum and Dad found me this phone box in southwest Scotland!

(Coordinates 55°49’23.8″N, 3°69’21.7″W.)

It still has a phone in it, but also a notice from BT saying they’re thinking about removing it 🙁

Update July 2024: it’s had a coat of paint! And they haven’t removed the phone yet, though the notice was still there.