LOCAL HERO
Marion Armstrong and her neighbour transformed a redundant BT kiosk into a thriving art space in their village
Two neighbours came together with a creative idea to make great use of an old red phone box
It’s amazing how much interest the slim red phone box on our green in Upper Settle has sparked. We are on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, yet our visitor book has comments from travellers from as far afield as Sweden and New Zealand, enthusing about the delight of this unusual find. Curiosity is piqued, and when they open the door they find themselves inside probably the smallest art gallery in the world!
My good friend Alison Marshall and I set up the gallery in 2009. We have lived opposite one another on the green for some years. As town councillors (alongside our jobs – Alison as a business development manager at Leeds University, and me as a semi-retired general manager at the Settle to Carlisle Railway Company), we learnt BT was selling the decommissioned box for just £1 under its ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ scheme. When Alison suggested turning it into an art gallery, colleagues on the council rubbished the idea. But local people made their feelings clear that the iconic structure must be saved.
Quite a bit of elbow grease was required, with a new lick of paint using the original red, and window panes scrubbed. It rather showed up the pillar box next to it, so that got a fresh coat too! We decided to create a mosaic on the floor, which I worked on with my late mother. Lots of locals came to the opening and we asked them to do ‘works of art’ on postcards. Word got out and we were interviewed on BBC Breakfast, helping us attract artists. One volunteer is a retired curator from the media museum in Bradford and he facilitated an exhibition by Brian May, featuring a set of very early 3D photographs on the theme of a ‘Lost Village’. It stirred great excitement, especially for Queen fans! Many successes stand out since. Photographic artist Fleur Olby staged a beautiful selection of flower images, replacing the mosaic floor with artificial grass and white hyacinths. The scent filled the box and hit as soon as you opened the door. An amazing Canadian photographer,
Jim des Rivieres, created a display called The Magnificent Moths. And every winter we have a Twelve Days of Christmas-inspired piece from Settle flagmakers with wall panels that give a stained-glass effect.
A lot of head scratching goes into helping artists create their desired backdrops – nails and screws are not an option, so often magnets are involved. Problem-solving is part of the fun. We receive a few hundred pounds in council funding and won £1,000 in a BT competition for most innovative use of a phone box. But with around 10 volunteers as well as donations we’re fairly self-sufficient. We are now slowly handing over to a new generation of curators, and I can’t wait to see the results. Four more phone boxes have been rescued in the village, for use as a listening gallery and for a defibrillator among other things. I think we can say that keeping the box turned out to be a good call. Go to galleryonthegreen.org.uk. To adopt a kiosk, go to business. bt.com/campaigns/communities/ adopt-a-kiosk