End of line for last working phone box in the city centre But BT set to preserve listed kiosk in place
battle against wanton vandalism.
On that basis, it deserves to be saved, no matter what the cost.
Following the Post’s enquiry about the future of the Temple Row West phone box, BT sent an engineer out.
A BT spokesman said: “It’s going to be cleaned up and made safe.
“As it’s not used very often and is regularly vandalised, BT is going to decommission it – ie remove the phone mechanism – but leave the structure in place as a local landmark.”
The spokesman added: “BT is looking at different ways to reinvent the phone box – like the combined phone and cashpoint ATM and elsewhere the new InLinkUK kiosks.
“We are also encouraging local councils to adopt a red phone box that is no longer well used but is still well loved local landmark.”
All four kiosks in nearby Eden Place have been ‘adopted’ from BT.
The East Sussex-based Red Kiosk Company Ltd paid £1 each for THE famous K6 box was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960) who also left behind Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, Battersea power station and Bankside power station, now Tate Modern.
In August last year, it was revealed that BT was to axe 20,000 phone boxes across the UK by 2022.
The number of public payphones peaked in 2002 at 92,000 and nearly 7,000 of BT’s phone boxes bear the traditional red design.
Some could get public protection as 2,400 are already designated as grade II-listed buildings.
But BT has also been encouraging communities to preserve their own part of Britain’s heritage by buying unused kiosks for just £1 under the ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ scheme.
More than 4,300 have been adopted and transformed into everything from art galleries to mini libraries, pubs, greenhouses, exhibition and information centres – and even as homes for defibrillators.
The rise in popularity of mobile phones in recent years has corresponded with the number of people using public phone boxes declining dramatically.
In the last decade payphone usage has decreased by more than 90 per cent.
Overall, more than half of BT’s phone box estate is loss-making, with a third making less than one call a month. them in 2013, but the cost of planning and restoration has been around £4,500 per box.
The ads on the windows say: “Retail opportunity: coffee, frappuccino, ice cream, souvenirs, hot dogs, confectionary (sic), shoe shine etc.”
In July 2015 Jake Hollier opened one as a ‘coffee pod’ called Jake’s Coffee Box.
The Red Kiosk Company and charity Thinking Outside the Box were founded by Brighton-based businessmen Edward Ottewell and Steve Beeken to try to ensure phone boxes could have a positive impact on local communities.
Mr Ottewell said: “We own 124 boxes around the country and 41 are currently let.
“We are moving away from individual start-ups to housing established businesses.
“We are hoping the upper two in Eden Place will be let this summer – one to a phone repair company, the other to a vaping company – while the other two might be used for promotional purposes.
“Although some phone boxes are listed, they can be lost if the council doesn’t support them being retained and we would be very interested to try to save the one on Temple Row West.
“The key to their success is keeping them looking good.”