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I hear the quintessential red phone box has just turned 75. ...what's the news?

Yes, that's right. The first one was erected to celebrate the silver jubilee of the coronation of King George V. It was known as the Jubilee Kiosk, and also the K6 Kiosk.

K6? Hang on. Wasn't he a dog in Doctor Who?

Ha ha! The English architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also worked on Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station, created the K6 design. It was slightly smaller than the K2 design.

I'm seeing a K pattern.

That's true. The first phone box was a K1, and there were several variations until the K8 - no K9, which WAS the dog in Doctor Who. The K2 design was restricted to London, but the K6 'jubilee' red telephone box was the first standard telephone box to be installed across the country.  

How many of the kiosks are, or were there?

Well, when the last one was produced in 1968, there were almost 70,000 phone boxes across Britain. The first coin operated phone box was installed in Ludgate Circus in London in 1906, and by 1925 there were 1,000. This rose to 8,000 by 1930 and 19,000 by 1936.

Were they just randomly placed?

No, according to the 'Jubilee Concession' they were installed in every town or village that had a post office.

Well, the K6 is definitely my favourite. How did it survive so long?

It was quickly considered a British landmark, and that's why the K6 outlived the K7 and K8. Many were replaced with the KX 100-400 series kiosks, but eventually the K6 was accepted as the true Brit, and more than 1,000 are now listed.

Good. So they're going nowhere?

That's right, even though 64 per cent of phone boxes lose money. At least they are still getting used though; BT handles at least 100,000 calls every day from payphones, although that has fallen by 80 per cent over the past five years.

I haven't been in a kiosk for years. Perhaps they need to find a new use for them. 

Well, BT has an Adopt a Kiosk scheme whereby a local authority can take ownership of a telephone box to protect its heritage. The phones are removed and the local authority has responsibility for the box's maintenance and upkeep. There's also a sponsored kiosk scheme which keeps the phones in situ, but the local authority contributes towards the cost of maintenance.

Boxes without phones? Er, what are they used for?

Funny you should ask. Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset, have turned one of the K6 telephone boxes into the country's smallest library. On the door it says 'Westbury Book Exchange' and below there is a small sign attached with blu-tack that says 'Quiet Please'.

Wow! That's brilliant...is that the most original use?

Actually the Community Heartbeat Trust has installed three defibrillators in kiosks in rural areas where ambulance response times can be slow. It wants to install more, and the initiative has already saved a life in Norfolk when one holiday maker suffered a heart attack after an aerobics class!

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