New touch screen phone boxes to be installed across the capital

Amy Ashenden10 February 2017

New phone boxes with touch screen journey planners and high-speed Wi-Fi are set to be installed in 13 London boroughs this year.

New World Payphones will also plant a tree for every one of the 750 phone boxes it replaces.

The phone boxes will be installed in Barking, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Croydon, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Wandsworth throughout 2017.

Professor Nigel Linge of the University of Salford's telecommunication programme said: "It's often said that mobile phones have caused the death of the public phone box, I would argue that this new model proves that mobiles have actually prompted the evolution of the phone box.

New design: Phone boxes to be installed across the capital
New World Payphones

"Our communication needs are always evolving. This model meets the demand for enabling modern communication, while keeping one foot in the past with a design steeped in history.

"It is a technological and aesthetically-pleasing success and will ensure that phone boxes will retain their ubiquitous presence on our high streets for years to come."

Phone boxes first appeared in 1912 when the General Post Office absorbed private telephone companies in Britain in a bid to find a single design for a national kiosk.

The K2 designed followed in 1926 with its blue metropolitan police telephone box, designed by Sir Gillbert Scott.

Next was the K6 with nearly 8,000 kiosks installed across the UK from 1936. Many of the red telephone boxes were then removed or replaced by BT branded versions.

Watch the video above to see the new design and the history of phoneboxes explained.

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