Biography
We trace the history of the red phone box from its beginnings resembling a pagoda, to the design we all know and love.
The Basics
The red telephone box has long been such a fondly regarded feature of our landscape that BT’s decision to decommission it was met with wailing and lamentation throughout the land. No mere post with a phone attached, the box was a solid edifice, somewhere in which making a phonecall was something of an occasion.
History of the Red Phone Box
Although arguably an endangered species these days, the red telephone box created by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott has long been considered a design icon: one of those items that instantly marked the nation’s identity to overseas visitors. Nothing that has been designed since to fulfil the same purpose has been anywhere near so fondly regarded. And since so many of us have mobile phones now anyway, we could be forgiven for hardly noticing.
