Category Archives: Geography

Angel Islington, London, wander

We took a walk around Angel yesterday. It’s been a while and good to see some things hadn’t changed. I have two phone box photos to share – a classic autumn scene and a wine cabinet specially crafted..

20161023_170735-comp 20161023_165728-comp

Rome…if you want to

Heard the B52’s song the other day and then we were off to Rome and I keep humming the tune.

Nothing new on the phone box scene but here’s a block all the same:

Rome, phone comp

Overgrown phone box in St Michaels

Closing the door of overgrown phone box in St Michaels is like a bushtucker trial from I’m A Celebrity

Source: Kent Online

overgrown box

Covered in thick foliage and buried deep into the hedgerow, this phone box in St Michaels felt like “something from I’m A Celebrity”.

Councillor Sue Ferguson, who posted the picture on social media, said closing the door of the dark, dingy kiosk felt like a challenge from the ITV show.

Councillor Sue Ferguson, who posted the picture on social media, said closing the door of the dark, dingy kiosk felt like a challenge from the ITV show.

She said:

“If you were slightly scared of insects you really wouldn’t want to be in there. It was quite horrible to go inside. It felt like one of those awful things from I’m A Celebrity – it would be one their terrible tasks to actually shut the door!”

In the popular reality show, contestants perform tricky or terrifying tasks – bushtucker trials – to win food and treats for their camp and most of the challenges involve creepy crawlies.

The kiosk next to the Fat Ox pub still works but as most people have a mobile phone now, it is rarely used.

Their production of telephone boxes ended altogether in 1985 with the advent of the KX series phones and many kiosk around the country have been broken and abandoned.

Mrs Ferguson added:

“I tweeted pictures of it to BT showing what a state it was in and they actually replied to say they would get this sorted, so well done BT for wanting to do something about it.”

 

Penang, Malaysia

A fabulous contribution from an Australian  friend who has been travelling in Malaysia.

Penang Photo by Natasha Dobrovolsky)

Penang
(photo by Natacha Dobrovolsky)

Box marks the spot

central phone box

BT installed its 100,000th payphone at Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire in 1992 and included a plaque to explain its significance. It reads:

“You are calling from the BT payphone that marks the centre of Great Britain.”

In fact, the phone is 4.2 miles (6.8 km) from the true centre. Postmaster and shop owner Phil Woodhead said the town did not capitalise on its status.

“There is only that payphone really… we haven’t put up big signs or anything like that. If this was a bigger town with more shops, then maybe we would do something. But because we are so small, there is really no-one to push it.”

Source: BBC News

Mojave Phone Booth

mojave

I listen to a podcast called ‘99% Invisible’. It’s an American series I have been onto for a couple of years – although I only listen in spasmodically.  Podcast no. 202 is title ‘Mojave Phone Booth’ . Cool.

It has led me to a movie I didn’t know about ‘Mojave Phone Booth’ (2006) and the Wikipedia page on the artefact itself – you guessed it, a phone box in the Mojave desert.

This goes a long way to proving that I am not alone in my fascination for phone boxes.

 

Norfolk, UK

Recently spent a weekend in Norfolk and came across these:

Great Yarmouth phone

Great Yarmouth

UK, Holkham

Holkham

Cyprus

We just spent a couple of weeks in Cyprus and came across these phones. In Nicosia I was giving up on seeing a phone in the Old City but just outside the walls, by the Museum entrance there was a very special one – solar powered (see below):

Lempa - by the house with the trippy ceramic walls

Lempa – by the house with the trippy ceramic walls

Nicosia

Nicosia

Nicosia

Nicosia

Nicosia solar phone

Nicosia solar phone

Paphos

Paphos

Paphos marina

Paphos marina

Troodos

Troodos

Cyprus village

Cyprus village

Larnaca

Larnaca

Charing Cross Station, London

charing cross platform comp

Milan, Italy

Italy, Milan 2015 Italy, Milan, Castello Sfotzesco