Red telephone box

The red telephone box is a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for famous sites like Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station.

The telephone box is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, its associated Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories and Malta. Despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, the traditional British red telephone kiosk can still be seen in many places throughout the UK, and in overseas territories, the Commonwealth and elsewhere around the world. The colour red was chosen to make them easy to spot.

From 1926 onwards, the fascias of the kiosks were emblazoned with a prominent crown, representing the British Government. The red phone box is often seen as a British cultural icon throughout the world.[1] In 2006, the K2 telephone box was voted one of Britain's top 10 design icons, which included the Mini, Supermarine Spitfire, London tube map, World Wide Web, Concorde and the AEC Routemaster bus.[2][3] In 2009, the K2 was selected by the Royal Mail for their "British Design Classics" commemorative postage stamp issue.[4]

Many of the phone box designs are protected by trade mark registrations and copyright, held by British Telecommunications plc.[5] In 2019, the prototype K2, located at Burlington House in London since 1924, was listed to Grade II* in "recognition of its iconic design status".[6]

  1. ^ Odone, Cristina (11 March 2013). "The trashing of the iconic red phone box is one bad call". The Daily Telegraph.
  2. ^ "Long list unveiled for national vote on public's favourite example of Great British Design". BBC. 18 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Concorde voted the UK's top icon". BBC News. 18 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Stamps show great British designs". BBC. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  5. ^ "Search for a trade mark - Intellectual Property Office".
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Listed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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