I spotted this phone box with its door missing on the day I first did the Great Edinburgh Winter Run. Because the event is so busy, Dad had parked further up the Pleasance while I did the race, and so I was able to grab a picture of this one as we went past afterwards.
(Coordinates 55°94’58.9″N, 3°18’20.0″W.)
According to Google Maps, this one was still there as of June 2017! It needs a bit of TLC, though.
Update from a December 2021 revisit: the phone box has a door again!
This is another phone box set I spotted in Northampton on Hallowe’en 2015.
(Coordinates 52°23’71.8″N, 0°89’55.7″W.)
I think these ones are very pretty with the flowers, autumn leaves and memorial in the background. It’s nice when red phone boxes are still a feature of town centres.
Update March 2022: added coordinates. These ones were still standing as of November 2020.
I have a few pictures of this phone box, which I consider one of my ‘local’ red phone boxes as I can get there on the Metro; Newcastle itself doesn’t have any red phone boxes (other than the mystery derelict one in Gosforth that I have never managed to find), but there are plenty in other areas of Tyneside and Wearside. The first photo I have of it was taken by my dad when my parents were out exploring the area on their first visit to see us here:
(Coordinates 55°01’75.1″N, 1°42’47.0″W.)
The phone box has since been taken over by BT’s Adopt-a-Kiosk scheme, and is now an art installation. Good to see it getting some love.
Update February 2022: coordinates added. This box was still standing as of April 2018 – hope to visit it again soon! (Updated post here.)
I did some phone box hunting while in Northampton on Hallowe’en 2015 for a wedding:
(Coordinates 52°23’69.1″N, 0°89’44.6″W.)
You can’t really see from this picture, but when I was on Google Street View to find out the name of the street, I realised that there’s actually another phone box behind this one. Next time I’m in Northampton I’ll make sure to take a picture of the both of them!
Update February 2022: added coordinates. This box and its shy twin were still standing as of November 2020.
Every time (it feels like) I pass these phone boxes, it’s when Geth and I are rushing from the bus to the train. On this occasion, it was absolutely pouring, meaning that Geth was extra-especially grumpy about having to stop for me to take pictures of phone boxes.
(Coordinates 55°95’39.5″N, 3°19’44.8″W.)
I was pretty happy about it, though, because this particular date is an important date in the story of one of the novel series I’m writing, and I always envisaged it as being rainy in Edinburgh on that day. Given how often it rains in Edinburgh, though, I don’t think that notion was particularly prophetic. It feels like there’s a 70% chance of rain at any point, even when it’s been bright blue skies for days. You can never be too careful.
Update 22nd July 2021: still there and looking summery!
This week’s phone box is the first one I found in the North East of England, outside Durham Cathedral.
(Coordinates 54°77’48.1″N, 1°57’54.3″W.)
When I took this one, I remember Geth going on a big rant about how there was this beautiful medieval cathedral right in front of me and there I was, taking a photo of the phone box. An older lady who was walking past backed me up, saying ‘they don’t make them like that anymore!’ They most certainly don’t. Anyway, I did take a photo of the cathedral as well:
But frankly, you can see pictures of Durham Cathedral any time you like (given that it has a Wikipedia page and everything), and you can’t say that about the Durham Cathedral phone box.
Update 15th July 2021: it’s now a defibrillator box!
I did threaten promise to start posting my collection of red phone box photos, so here I go!
(Coordinates 50°89’66.4″N, 1°40’43.7″W.)
I took this photo on our last night living in Southampton; we moved away the next day. I do also have one of me, slightly tipsy and posing with the right-hand box like a nutter, but nobody needs to see that. I never go into phone boxes to examine them more closely (they’re usually pretty gross inside nowadays as people only really use them as urinals/bins) but the phones in these ones are at least still intact, even if they probably don’t work anymore. When Geth and I finally paid a flying visit to Southampton last May for the first time since moving away, we walked down High Street to visit the Platform Tavern (one of our favourite pubs in the city) and the phone boxes were still standing – good to see!
Update February 2022: added the coordinate link. It’s good to see that these two were still standing as of September 2020.
In the month of my birth, January 1985, two important things happened in the history of the telephone in the UK. One was Britain’s first ever mobile phone call, made in the early hours of New Year’s Day 1985. The other was the announcement that classic red phone boxes would be replaced with a new design. Looking 33 years backwards from our world of smartphone zombies, YMMV on whether either of these was a good thing.
The classic red phone box is one of my favourite aesthetic icons of 20th century Britain. I love red phone boxes and take pictures of them wherever I find them, like some kind of excitable tourist. Sad to say they are gradually becoming rarer and rarer on Britain’s streets, but lots of them are being repurposed for things like defibrillators and cash machines, so I live in hope that they won’t disappear completely.
I have lots of phone box pictures and will be sharing them on the blog soon!
Some of my favourite useful links for info about phone boxes:
My husband Geth and I are in the process of buying our first house at the moment, which, as with every move, is both exciting and stressful at the same time. We’re pretty close to completion now, and had a meeting with our solicitor in Whitley Bay today to sign stuff and finalise things.
I was excited to find out today that the house we’re buying was built in 1988. I love the ’80s but have never lived in an ’80s build before! I’m really looking forward to moving in next month, getting settled, and starting to plan all my home improvement projects.