London's telephone boxes - a design classic

The design of the red phone box was the work of an aspiring architect who left his mark on London's skyline.

The red phone box was the work of a man who was to leave his mark on London in many ways. Giles Gilbert Scott was actually an architect who built some of the Capital's biggest buildings including Battersea power station and Bankside (now the home of the Tate Modern). When the GPO wanted a new phone box in 1925 Scott and a number of other leading architects were asked to submit designs for a competition. Scott's design triumphed. The winner came to be known as the K2. It proved to be expensive to make and was only ever erected in London. The K6 was introduced ten years later to celebrate King George"s silver jubilee. After privatisation the GPO now 'British Telecommunications' began to 'decommission' phone boxes and in a moment of madness started to paint them yellow - sacrilege. The boxes are back to being red but with the proliferation of mobile phones and other companies offering telephones on the street, the K2, an icon of the London street is a real rarity.

 

The difference between a K2 and a K6 (so that you need never again suffer those embarrassing gaps in conversations when you can’t think of anything to say) are these: the K2 has little square panel windows where the K6 has wider middle panels with little ones either side. The K2 is taller and has a crown cut into the top, the K6 crown is gold painted and is in relief - it sticks out. Oh and K2 stands for Kiosk 2 because it’s the second design that the GPO used.  Will you survive without knowing about Ks 3 to 5?

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