Features
We look at alternative uses for the red phone box – from vice card hot spot to public art.
Vice Card Control
The privatisation of British Telecom in 1984 signalled not only the beginning of the end for the genteel municipal phone box, but a crucial shift in the function of this most private of public spaces. In line with the move away from monopoly and towards the market, the law banning advertising in phone boxes was repealed – and London's prostitutes quickly seized the chance to use a new, cost-free space in which to publicise their services.
Connected Earth
The Connected Earth initiative (www.connected-earth.com) is a web-based museum of communication, underpinned by a series of major physical collections, distributed among a network of museums around the UK. The phone box is a part of this story, of course. But as curator Alex Newson reveals, Connected Earth represents several other icons too…
Alternative Uses
The classic K6 red phone boxes are no longer confined to the use they were intended for, they can now be bought and transformed into art installations or talking points for the home and garden.
