Uploaded October 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
London's streets are littered with old red phone boxes. They're mementos of a time gone by, when you needed to push coins inside a compact cubicle to place a call. Nowadays, there's a little device in your pocket that can handle that.
However, that doesn't mean we should just scrap the city's old boxes. To tourists they've come to represent an ideal of the city. And they hold a fond spot in many natives' hearts. Also we can't just knock them down, many are listed structures.
So what to do with them? One's that are just left have an unfortunate habit of becoming unofficial bins and loos. We sent Londonist's Harry Rosehill out to explore some other uses for the city's old phone boxes.
Learn more about the history of the phone box with this evolutionary tree: londonist.com/london/best-of-london/the-red-phone-box-an-evolutionary-tree
And find out more about LoveFone: lovefone.co.uk
London's streets are littered with old red phone boxes. They're mementos of a time gone by, when you needed to push coins inside a compact cubicle to place a call. Nowadays, there's a little device in your pocket that can handle that.
However, that doesn't mean we should just scrap the city's old boxes. To tourists they've come to represent an ideal of the city. And they hold a fond spot in many natives' hearts. Also we can't just knock them down, many are listed structures.
So what to do with them? One's that are just left have an unfortunate habit of becoming unofficial bins and loos. We sent Londonist's Harry Rosehill out to explore some other uses for the city's old phone boxes.
Learn more about the history of the phone box with this evolutionary tree: londonist.com/london/best-of-london/the-red-phone-box-an-evolutionary-tree
And find out more about LoveFone: lovefone.co.uk
