Subsidence or two drunken telephone boxes?

Today at the bus terminus.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Subsidence or two drunken telephone boxes?

101 ways to use a Chorlton telephone box …..the Calypso one

It’s just a sign of the times.

Once no one would presume to post adverts on the side of a telephone kiosk.

Which was partly because the old fashioned red one with all those tiny windows made it difficult.

Leaving the bold entrepreneur to leave his or her business cards discreetly positioned at eye level inside the box.

But not so now.

Location; Manchester Road

Picture, Calypso Kiosk, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

Telephones Boxes I have known ............. part 3 Howarth, Yorkshire

The continuing series on telephone boxes I have known and by extension ones that have caught the attention of others.*

This one is in Howarth close to the home of the Bronte’s, and we were there one Sunday a few years ago.

The weather was kind, the tourists out in full flow and on the steps was a man reciting chapters from the Bible.

All of which just leaves me to say the series will run until we have exhausted the pictures.

Already there have been promises of pictures from Peckham, Windsor and Covenant Gardens and with a bit of luck there will also be some  stories.

After all for many of us they weren't just a place to make a telephone call but were where you arranged to meet up with friends and even places to take shelter when the rain came down like stair rods.

And in those long far away days they were also the safe place to make that intimate conversation with the new love of your life following up on the night in the cinema and perhaps taking the romance to to the next step.

But enough of this, back to the Bronte's, not that I can add much about the day we went to Howarth.

The vicarage and the graveyard is well worth going to see, the gift shops, pubs and restaurants were welcoming enough and the views across the Yorkshire landscape were stunning.

So not much else to say.

Pictures; in Howarth with a telephone kiosk and a man with a bible, 2013, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Telephone Kiosks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Telephone%20Kiosks

101 ways to use a Chorlton telephone box ….. the political one

Now, over the years I mused on the different ways disused telephone kiosks have been turned into something different.

My favourite is the mini library, although the equally small museum nearly beat it to the finishing line.*

Less popular on my list is their use as a place for business cards advertising everything from taxis to certain services, while there will be a few who have used them as lavatories.

And now emboldened by their decommission some are used as billboards, which takes me to this one on Wilton Road to which was added recently a comment on the war in Ukraine.

Location; Wilton Road, Chorlton

Picture; the Political telephone box, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Telephone Kiosks,https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Telephone%20Kiosks

101 ways to use a Chorlton telephone box …..

Today I am thinking about the revolution in communication which has put a mobile phone into almost everyone’s hand and made the humble telephone box almost a thing of the past.

True they have not yet passed into oblivion, if for no another reason than not everyone has their own personal phone.

But I remember the 1980s when competition between BT and Mercury led to a duplication of telephone boxes where the rival companies plonked the boxes down all over the city often right next to each other.

Added to which BT went on an aggressive programme of installing them in multiple units, sometimes within a short walk.

So, on Beech Road, there were two outside the old post office, another two on the corner of Wilton and a bank of them at the bus terminus.

And now this old form of communication seems to be in retreat.

There are fewer of them, they do not seem to be mended as quickly and many have been given over to other uses, from libraries to shops and museums.

Of course, I know that there were more dubious uses for the boxes, and even before their decline, they were the repository of all sorts of cards from those advertising taxis to those inviting the reader to sign up for other services.

Today many stand forlorn and have become victim to heaps of posters which I suppose makes them still in the business of communication, even if the posters are often quite tatty.

Leaving me just to think back to the time when you could dial a song, reverse the charges or just push button B to get your money back.

And if you were in the know, and had that long series of numbers which were allegedly used by GPO engineers to phone the Exchanges you could make a call for free.

Sadly my innate sense of honesty always stopped me ..... that and a serious mistrust that a] it wouldn't work and b] I might somehow get caught.

Location; Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton

Pictures; 101 ways to use a Chorlton telephone box, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Push button A .............. making a telephone call in 1955

Now if you are old enough to remember Muffin the Mule, hid behind the sofa for bits of Quatermas and the Pit and thought the light had gone out of the world at hearing of the assassination of Dr King and the death of Otis Reading I suspect you will remember how to operate button A & B on this public telephone.

I don’t as a rule go in for nostalgia but when John Casey sent over these pictures from his collection something stirred deep inside me.

Not that I used a public telephone that often, partly because there were few people I knew who had a phone and also because we were even in the 1950s one of that rare breed on Lausanne Road who had one.

The number was New Cross 6251 and that it itself dates me and our phone.

It was that time when you still used a mix of letters and numbers and in our case also involved being on a party line which meant we shared the line with someone else.

Films of the 50s often used that simple sharing of a telephone line for some very improbable comic plots.
Looking more closely it is possible to locate this one at the Maida Vale Junction with Hall Road in north London.

I went looking for it but I think the kiosk has gone.

And that is pretty much that.

Except for those very long numbers which if you tapped them into a public phone were supposed to allow you to make a free call.

As I remember it was always a friend of a friend who knew someone in the GPO who supplied the code, but I don't recall it ever working for me.

Location; London

Picture, a telephone kiosk date unknown from the collection of John Casey

Doing the double in Frodsham ............. making a telephone call and posting a letter

Now this is a telephone box with a difference.

It is according to the blue plaque nearby a “Telephone Kiosk circa 1927 K4 style 'The Vermillion Giant'

Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, only fifty were made and this believed to be one of only four examples known to have survived Listed Grade II"*

I have Brian Robertson to thank for letting me use the image which comes from his excellent facebook site Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places.

And that pretty much is all there is to say about it.

Except perhaps that I remain in awe of the variations on a simple telephone box.

Location; Frodsham, Cheshire

Picture; K4 Telephone Kiosk, circa 1927 from the collection of Brian Robertson

*Frodsham Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme, 2005.

Telephones Boxes I have known ............. part 7 down at Central Ref having a break from the Social Sciences Library

Now it’s been a few weeks since I featured a telephone kiosk, so here area a pair from just outside Central Ref.

Back in the late 60's and early 70's I used them a lot.

Mainly it was to track down a new place to live.

The property page in the Evening News came out on I think a Thursday at noon, and if you weren’t quick by 10 past the bed sit/ flat for four had gone, so these two kiosks were pretty important and of course offered a break from reading some dense article in the Social Sciences Library.

Picture; two telephone kiosks, 2015 from the collection of Brian Robertson

Telephones Boxes I have known ............. part 6 goodbye to the blues ones

Now the series has been running for a few weeks and I am pleased at the response which has offered up red kiosks from around the country with at least two sent back from America and more than a few intriguing tales of escapades inside the boxes.

But of course the GPO K kiosk was not the only telephone box on our streets and so to celebrate the humble blue police box here is a fine example from Whitby.

I had in my ignorance assumed that there was just one basic style which had a lot to do with me growing up in London and watching Dr Who but not so.

There were a fair few which sets the challenge of “Bring me a picture of that red telephone box from my youth” off on a new course and opens up fresh photographs and stories.

Not that I shall explore the history of the police box or the beginnings of their demise in the late 1960s all of which is well documented instead it will just be those blue ones.

Except to say the first date from the 1870 in the USA and our first was in Glasgow in 1891 and was painted red.

Picture; Police Box, Whitby, 2014 from the collection of David Harrop

***Telephone Kiosks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Telephone%20Kiosks

Telephones Boxes I have known ............. part 5 signs and a story

Now I am part of that generation that grew up with the gas board, travelled on British Railways and trusted the Post Office to deliver both my mail and connect my telephone calls.

And despite the so called bright new dawn of competition which came in the 1980s I still hanker for those old public utilities.

I accept that some needed improvement particularly when it came to customer relations and the British Rail sandwich was indeed dire, but there was a lot to be said for a national service owned and funded by the country.

All of which is an introduction to the National Telephone Company which lasted for just thirty years and spanned the years when the telephone came into its own.

It been established in 1881 with the aim of to developing and operating telephone services in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Ulster and parts of Scotland and by degree bought up other regional companies.*

Finally in 1912 the Post Office took over the NTC and its telephone systems.

It is a story I was only vaguely aware of and so I have David Harrop to thank for setting me off on this little bit of telephone discovery which came about when he shared these enamelled telephone signs dating to the early years of the last century.

I suppose given what I have already said my favourite has to be the Post Office one but there is something equally attractive in the N.T.C., sign with its blue bell.

David tells me that the Avoncroft Museum near Broomsgrove has the National Telephone Collection which contains 32 telephone kiosks,  including every type used from 1912 to the present day. **

Now that will make for a fascinating visit and just adds stories of ttelephone boxes I have known.***

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop

* National Telephone Company, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Telephone_Company

**Avoncroft Museum, http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/visit-us/

***Telephone Kiosks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Telephone%20Kiosks

Telephones Boxes I have known ............. part 4 Covenant Garden and Windsor

Choosing a telephone box, Covenant Garden, 2014

The continuing series on telephone boxes I have known and by extension ones that have caught the attention of others.

And these I couldn’t resist.

They come from the collection of David Harrop and take the story of the much loved red kiosks into another dimension.

I guess these five on Bow Street north near Covenant Garden might prompt that derisory observation that you can go looking for a telephone box and then five come your way.

Of course there was a time when certain places had their fair share.

Down at Windsor, 2014

From memory the number dotted around Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester was legendary and were much used especially on the day when the new flats were advertised in the Evening News.

The paper came out at midday and by five past twelve trying to get through to some landlord offering bedsits in south Manchester was all but impossible.

Which brings me to the second of David’s pictures which is pure fun.

It is situated in Windsor near the castle and needs no further comment other than that even an iconic object can be given a twist.


Pictures; a bank of telephone boxes in Covenant Garden and down in Windsor, 2014 from the collection of 
David Harrop

*Telephone Kiosks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Telephone%20Kiosks

Telephones Boxes I have known ............. part 2 Knaresborough, Yorkshire

Now it’s not the most zippy of titles but it holds the promise of new series on the much loved telephone kiosk.

For decades the red telephone box has been as much a part of our street architecture as the pillar box and the Belisha Beacon.

And for those with much longer memories it takes its place with the equally iconic Police box, the enamelled street advert and those vending machines dispensing Five Boys chocolate.

So over the next brace of weeks and in no particular order there will be as many examples of the telephone kiosks as I can find.

It all began with a recent story which provoked a shed load of memories and the promise of pictures of those red boxes from all over the country.*

These are from Knaresborough in Yorkshire, a small market town with a ruined castle and a  very impressive bridge.

All of which just leaves me to say the series will run until we have exhausted the pictures and feel free to add a story.

Pictures; three telephone boxes, and bridge in Knaresborough, 2013, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* Bring me a picture of that red telephone box from my youth, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/bring-me-picture-of-that-red-telephone.html from the series, Telephone Kiosks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Telephone%20Kiosks

Bring me a picture of that red telephone box from my youth

Now writing about the telephone box is not so daft given that they are disappearing from our streets or are  being turned to other uses.*

Down in Lewisham with the book library, 2015

The mobile revolution has pretty much done for them which is a shame because if you are of a certain age they were as much a part of the street furniture as the pillar box or Belisha Beacon.

There was that brief spat of competition between Mercury and BT in the 1980s which seemed to lead to shed loads of telephone boxes appearing all over the place but now it is increasingly difficult to find one at all.

Those new ones were by and large made to a new design which did away with the familiar red box with its heavy door in favour of a three sided cubicle with big glass panels and which was open at the front.

 I have to say I didn’t like them.

It wasn’t that they were new, it was just that they were neither inviting nor practical.

The absence of a door and the fact there was a gap half way down made them less private, let in the weather and the noise from passing traffic and people.

In contrast the red box offered up a quiet secure place to make a call.

It began with pulling open the heavy door which didn’t always open easily, and then inside there was that familiar slightly sweet smell which came I guess from the disinfectant and the stuffiness of the small cubicle.

No phone but lots of books, 2015

Added to which there could also be those lingering set of smells which were a mix of stale tobacco, perfume and unwashed bodies.

But they did the business and I still like the idea that each had its set of telephone directories much thumbed through and adorned with scribbles, obscure messages and the occasional obscene drawing.

And the kiosk was an essential part of growing up which included that childhood game of pushing the buttons to see if any pennies were released and later still dialling those secret GPO numbers to get a free call which was always more about the thrill of the illicit act than ever it was about defrauding the Post Office.

Not that we used them that often, after all when you were ten in 1959 there was pretty much no one to phone.

Most of the people I knew still didn’t have a phone and most of the time I was actually with the people who I might want to contact.

But of course they became essential as I reached those teenage years and wanted that romantic conversation away from the ears of parents and nosey siblings.

Not that this was always easy, for first you had to explain why on a wet cold Sunday afternoon in February you needed to go out, and then there was the suspense of waiting for that special person to pick up and the inevitable embarrassment of asking her dad to get her to come to the phone.

Saved and in Kath's garden, 2015

And worst of all was the agonising wait in the box for her to phone you which always seemed to coincide with the lady from across the road who had got there first leaving you standing counting the minutes which hung like hours.

After a while you became adept at watching the hand movements which might signal Mrs Radcliffe was about to finish or more usually left you in the pit of despair as she came close to but never quite finished the conversation.

So I suppose the mobile phone has much to offer but I miss the old red box and so like the water troughs of the summer I throw out the challenge to bring me pictures of the surviving telephone kiosks along with stories.

And just after the story was posted my old friend Kath came up with the first pictures of the appeal.

This magnificent one stands in her back garden beside the coal bunker.

"in full working order and linked to the house phone"

It is, Kath tells me a  "Jubilee Kiosk (K6) and was commissioned to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. 

It appeared on the streets in 1936 and was the first standard kiosk to be introduced nationwide. This one came from Skinflats Village, Falkirk."

And she went on to add that "you got that perfect, the heavy doors, the smells, we used to ring the operator and say 'are you on the line - well you better get off there's a train coming' and then run like mad just in case we got caught ha ha ha.You brought back some good memories."

And I hope just the start.

Now I think there is another story that could be written about the foot prints but that's for another time

Pictures; the Lewisham telephone box courtesy of Adam Burgess* and the Skinflats kiosk from the collection of Kath May

*Down in Lewisham with an old telephone kiosk, Lewisham Micro Library and reflections on all those private lending libraries, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Lewisham