#Phonebox background series#

Although production of the traditional boxes ended with the advent of the KX series in 1985, many still stand in Britain. In the open-plan office, a PhoneBox supplies the necessary acoustic shielding and creates an ambience for confidential conversations. Business calls sometimes require a private space away from background noise. In 2006, the K2 telephone box was voted one of Britain’s top 10 design icons, which included the Mini, Supermarine Spitfire, London tube map, World Wide Web, Concorde and the AEC Routemaster bus. The PhoneBox provides a private space for telephoning. This new symbol began to appear on the fascias of K6 kiosks. In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II replaced the Tudor Crown in all contexts with the St Edward’s Crown, a representation of the crown used for British coronations. The same crown was used in all parts of the United Kingdom and British Empire. From 1926 onwards, the fascias of GPO kiosks were emblazoned with a prominent crown, initially the Tudor Crown, representing the British government. This improved visibility, and gave a more horizontal appearance to the windows. In the K6, the number of rows was increased to 8, and the central column of panes was made considerably wider than those to either side. The door and two glazed sides of the K2 each have 18 equal-sized panes of glass arranged in 6 rows of 3. In 1935, there were 19,000 public telephones in the UK by 1940, thanks to the K6, there were 35,000. The Jubilee kiosk, introduced for King George V’s silver jubilee in 1935 and known as the K6, eventually became a fixture in almost every town and village in the UK. Later designs adapted the same general look for mass production. The Royal Fine Art Commission (RFAC) was instrumental in the choice of the new British standard kiosk.įrom 1926, K2 was deployed in and around London. The first red telephone box was the result of a competition in 1924 to design a new kiosk.

This design was not of the same family as the familiar red telephone boxes. How did this beautiful, elegant British structure come into existence? The first standard public telephone kiosk introduced by the United Kingdom Post Office (GPO) was produced in concrete in 1920 and was designated K1 (Kiosk No.1). In Lake Havasu City, Arizona, a few red telephone boxes arrived when the old London Bridge was preserved there. Two red telephone boxes are on display at the World Showcase area of Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, and one of them is from yours truly the Kings Bay….we fairly certain it’s the one in Epcot…with one in Westminster, Maryland on the corner of West Main Street and Rt.

In Massachusetts, there is a red telephone box in the student center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There is one outside the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and one stands on the Courthouse Square in Oxford, Mississippi. A few have been installed in downtown Glenview, Illinois. Several of them have been installed on the Norman, Oklahoma, campus of the University of Oklahoma.

Phonebox background