I just had a lovely long weekend in Venice, visiting the Biennale. Here are a couple of shots.
Not sure why American soldiers have their own special phone in the Marco Polo Airport. Update: Thanks to Marilena for informing me that the Americans have a military base in the area.
I wonder what people think when they see me taking photos of phone boxes. I heard an American woman once say ‘Maybe they don’t have them where they’re from’ (or something to that effect). Hysterical.
I don’t have an acknowledgement for this image. If it is yours please let me know. I really like it so hope you don’t mind me keeping it on the blog.
The Continental‘, set in the John Wick universe, has a great fight scene in a phone box. Enjoy.
From Dezeen: workplace furniture company Room has created a single-person acoustic pod that provides solo workspaces in open-plan offices. The first product designed in Room’s catalogue, The Phone Booth is characterised by its trio of sound-dampening material layers that work together to reduce noise by 30 decibels, according to the brand.
The booth is clad in sound-blocking MDF and lined with sound-absorbing PET felt made from recycled plastic bottles. 100 per cent natural wool finishes also help to control noise levels. There is an LED light mounted in the ceiling along with two ultra-quiet fans that keep the air inside clean. Both the light and fans are controlled by a smart sensor.
The booth is delivered flat-packed and can be assembled in an hour by two people using only one tool, and it can also be moved between locations easily once assembled given its flexible design. The Phone Booth comes in two colourways, light and dark, and punctuated with oak accents.
Here is a cutting from issue 400 (2020) of the Fortean Times:
We’re currently watching The Undeclared War. The main character enters a mind palace when working on IT problems and the writers chose to use an iconic phone box in one representstion of this idea. Nice.
More good stuff… Again from The Guardian, by Mark Brown, 3 Mar 2023.
K8 boxes are last in the line of classics, say campaigners as nine still in working order get heritage protection
Nine rare cream-coloured public phone boxes that are still in working order have been given heritage protection by the government.
The K8 phone boxes are all cream – rather than red – because they are in Hull, the only place in England where the local council ran the public telephone network.
On the advice of Historic England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said it was listing the best surviving nine in Hull and its surroundings at Grade II.
Sarah Charlesworth, the listing team leader for the north at Historic England, said the phone boxes were something from a bygone era.
“Nowadays we have mobile phones, so the need for a phone box has declined, but a lot of people still remember when that was the only option,” she said.
“For many of us they’ve been the scene of memorable moments in our own lives, from furtive conversations with first boyfriends to desperate calls home when we’ve been in a fix.”
Charlesworth said remaining phone boxes today were often mini libraries or pop-up art galleries, so for Hull’s still to be in use was “really quite rare”.
For the full article go to the Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/03/hull-cream-coloured-phone-boxes-given-grade-ii-listed-status
Comments Off on Hull’s has cream-coloured phone boxes
Tagged heritage and history, UK, urban
This is the kind of news we like… From The Guardian, by Harriet Sherwood, 20 Jul 2023.
K8s installed on tube stations between 1968 and 1983 are listed for architectural and historic interest.
Four rare phone boxes on London Underground stations have been given Grade II-listed status by the government for their architectural and historic interest.
The phone boxes are among 11,000 K8 kiosks that were installed across the UK between 1968 and 1983. Only about 50 remain, mostly in Hull where they were part of an independent phone network rather than the property of British Telecom.
The K8s on tube stations were owned by London Underground and housed an internal phone system for station staff. As such, they were painted different colours to the traditional red phone boxes.
The newly listed boxes are at High Street Kensington and Chorleywood, both blue; Chalfont and Latimer, maroon; and Northwick Park, which is white.
Tom Foxall of Historic England, the body that recommends listing to the government, said: “There are very few designs that can be genuinely termed as ‘iconic’ but the K8 is certainly one of them. Like its predecessors, this kiosk was a defining feature of 20th-century Britain’s physical, technological and cultural landscape. Very few K8s survive, so they certainly need to be cherished and protected.”
For the full article go to the Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/20/four-london-underground-phone-kiosks-grade-ii-listed-status
Comments Off on London Underground phone kiosks given Grade II-listed status
Tagged heritage and history, UK, urban