A vintage red public telephone box, an iconic cultural symbol of British life made to mark a royal milestone decades ago, is set for auction – and it’s dialling up nostalgia.
For decades telephone boxes like these were crucial to daily life. They were a friend in need in an emergency, and a friend indeed when you wanted to keep in touch with family and friends.
People too young to remember life before mobile phones may struggle to comprehend that you needed to grab some loose change and walk to the nearest phone box to make a telephone call. And if someone was already in the kiosk, you formed an orderly queue.
Sometimes people arranged to rendezvous at a kiosk at an agreed time to call a friend. And occasionally, you’d hear a public phone ringing as you walked by but no-one was there to answer it.
Coins had to be pushed into a slot to make the call and, if you wanted to chat for longer, you had to keep pumping in money or the line would go dead. It may seem absurd to a younger generation constantly in touch via email, WhatsApp, text and social media, but at the time the telephone kiosk seemed a perfectly adequate means of communication.
And, though they are now few and far between, we still love them. Like the London bus or red post boxes, they showcase our nation’s uniqueness and often feature on tourist mementos.
For more than 30 years this particular phone box has been brightening up a driveway in the village of Blythe Bridge, near Stoke, Staffordshire. But now the classic Kiosk 6 design (K6) needs a new home.
The K6 was introduced in 1936 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of King George V, hence it’s known as the ‘Jubilee Kiosk’. The design is the brainchild of British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960). He also masterminded K2, the kiosk design which paved the way to the emergence of red telephone boxes across the country. The only difference in the later version is that vertical bars in the windows and door are spaced further apart to improve visibility.
The Jubilee Kiosk set for auction is around 80 years old and in need of restoration. It will be offered at Hansons on July 18 with an estimate of £1,000-£1,500. It’s in need of a little love but I am sure someone could restore it to its original mid-20th century magnificence.
It belongs to Barbara Cooper, 69, who used to run a double-glazing firm with her late husband, Des. He passed away at the age of 77 in 2020 but left behind many wonderful memories including the fun generated by the classic kiosk.
Des bought it in the late 1980s but Barbara isn’t sure where from. A friend who liked antique fairs called him as he’d came across two or three and wondered if he wanted one. Des said yes. It was all about the nostalgia for him. Kiosks like this used to be all people had. Barbara recalled someone racing to the nearest phone box to dial up help when her mum went into labour.
Des set up the box with a working phone – handy if it rang when he was gardening. He had phones everywhere in the house, including the garage and conservatory. The couple sometimes saw people wander into the phone box thinking they could make a call. One villager asked Des if he could buy it years ago but the answer was no. Barbara is only selling now because she is moving house.
The red telephone box was the result of a competition in 1924 to design a kiosk acceptable to the London Metropolitan Boroughs. They were reluctant to embrace the Post Office’s concrete K1 design, the first public telephone box launched in 1921.
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott came to the rescue with a classical style topped with a dome. It was chosen as the competition winner though Scott suggested a different colour – silver with a greenish-blue interior. The Post Office plumped for red to make it easy to spot. From 1926 K2 kiosks popped up in and around London and the exterior bore a crown to represent the British government.
The K2 did not penetrate far outside London but the ‘Jubilee’ model, produced between 1936 and 1953, became the first genuinely standard kiosk and was installed all over the country. Under a ‘Jubilee Concession’, kiosks were to be provided in every town or village with a post office, regardless of cost. As a result, more than 8,000 kiosks were installed.
The K6 telephone kiosk will be offered on July 18 in Hansons Auctioneers’ July 14-18 Antiques and Collectors Auction. Catalogue due live July 8: www.hansonslive.co.uk and www.the-saleroom.com. To find out more or to arrange a viewing, email Isabel Murtough: [email protected].
