Hanging on the telephone at world’s smallest nightclub
A TOWN has turned its traditional red phone box into a tiny nightclub – complete with a music system, glitterball and lighting.
Instead of making phone calls, the kiosk in Fore Street in Kingsbridge in Devon plays records including Blondie’s Hanging On The
Telephone and Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra.
The 8ft 3in tall box became the 5,000th to be adopted from BT when Kingsbridge Town Council took ownership of it.
Music fans can now listen to records by paying £1 to use a diala-disc type record system, with all proceeds donated to Kingsbridge-based charity @115.
Only one person – or two at a squeeze – can fit into the kiosk, which has stood in Fore Street for 60 years.
Coun Chris Povey said: “This red phone box is an important part of Kingsbridge’s heritage and we were determined to keep it, but we also wanted to do something different with it – something really eye-catching – so we came up with making it the world’s smallest nightclub.
“Very importantly, it will also help raise funds for a Kingsbridge charity, which provides a vital service for the local community.”
The most common uses for phone boxes in BT’s Adopt A Kiosk scheme are art galleries, notice and information boards, book exchanges and to house defibrillator equipment.
Over the past decade the use of payphones has declined by more than 90 per cent, although there are still about 5,000 working red payphones across the UK.
The Adopt a Kiosk programme was introduced in 2008, with local authorities or other organisations taking ownership of a BT phone box for £1.
About 340 of the 5,000 payphones have been adopted across Yorkshire and the Humber.
Residents in the village of Thorganby, near York, turned theirs into a book exchange, while the people of Warley, close to Halifax, converted one into a tiny museum complete with etched glass, old photographs and information on the location’s history.