Telephone Boxes.
The red, old, iconic telephone boxes, that are a British symbol.However due to the development of modern technology many of these are now in disuse and therefore just left to the natural elements and to vandals.
There has recently been a news story about the declining use of telephone kiosks. Click here to read it. It says how BT are planning on selling 60 of the original 'K6' kiosks, which were designed for King George V's silver jubilee, these will be refurbished and sold for £1,950.
BT have sold off thousands of the original 70,000 boxes, that were nationwide,before. In 2008, BT set up the Adopt-A-Kiosk scheme where local communities could buy their kiosk for just £1. This saw many of the kiosks being turned into libraries, art galleries, information centres, sculptures and even one kiosk in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire became a one-night-only pub.
At least 1000 of the remaining kiosks are Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England. I would have to research what is able to happen with these listed kiosks as I would assume these would have to be left in their original situ and not be able to change.
**Update. I have found another recent article on the red telephone kiosks.
“At first it was just to put them back on the streets, but the
next few months are shaping up to be hectic. The K6 in particular captures
people’s imagination because it’s such a traditional part of British
identity, like a post box or Big Ben. When people come to this country,
that’s what they want to see.”
