Mr BW writes:
Fun fact 2: don’t read this bit if you are eating.
Following on from an earlier comment from Delcatto about the ‘unique aroma’ of the public phone box in the 70s…
First of all I have to say that whilst I do admit that a roadside bush might have received the occasional highly alkaline feed, I never felt that a phone box was a place to use as a loo, just no, why would you?
However, others clearly did and this was much more than just a hygiene problem, which of course led to later design boxes being open at the bottom to allow them to be washed out by the rain etc.
One of the 1970s modification to increase security of the cash box under the phone added a low down lock and armoured sliding door mechanism, behind which hid the cash box. However, the propensity for the boxes to be used as public loos by inebriated lads on their way back from the local led to high levels of ammonia. The highly caustic and corrosive nature of which rusted the sliding mechanisms, so the sliding door could not be opened to retrieve the cash boxes…nice…
The next version removed the sliding door and is the one I am copying.
Scoakat
I hadn’t noticed these posts but am now caught up – and hooked! Enjoying the journey and can’t wait to see the final product, Mr BW.
mr BW
Thanks Scoakat, BW is felting today so the chisels will be out again.
Zoë
Somewhere, I’ve got a phone that probably dates from the 1960s. It had been left in the house we moved to in 1976. At that time, you did not buy your telephone, it was rented from British Telecom, so how it came to be left, I don’t know. We plugged it in and it worked – it has a dial, of course. Eventually, it became crackly and it was retired, but not thrown away. I’ll see if I can find it when I’ve got time (November at earliest, don’t hold your breath).
mr BW
Yes having a socket in the wall you could plug your own phone in to was a real step change from everything being hard wired and rented from BT. At last you could pck your own phone style. Theoretically all the old dial type BT owned phones were taken back at the end of rentals and the installation of the socket, but I have a feeling that the engineers just left them behind if asked. I don’t see how else there are so many around. Just check on your favourite internet auction site and there are literally hundreds of them.
delcatto
I could never understand why they had to use phone boxes, horrible and most unpleasant.
The phone boxes in Hull across the water from us were painted white. I’m not sure if there are any left.
mr BW
Apparently while most of the UK used red GPO phone boxes, Kingston upon Hull ran its own local telephone system. They chose an off-white colour for their boxes to show it was separate from the national public network. As you might expect my now favourite website has a year by year history of the company, here:
https://www.britishtelephones.com/histhull.htm
I haven’t visited but it also says there are still many off white phone boxes in the area.
Blue Witch
And don’t forget the blue Mercury phones of the late 1980s.