London has two red armies: Arsenal Football Club, and the flurry of phone boxes that are dotted around here, and the whole country.
And now, the younger of the two institutions are celebrating 100 years of existence, and are allowing us to be in with a chance of buying them for just £1. Yes, phone boxes – not the older, 1886-born Arsenal – are soon to be on sale, meaning you could adopt a kiosk for a cut-price number; probably about the price of a Fredo chocolate bar these days.
About 1,000 of these icons will be up for grabs to celebrate a century of red phone boxes in the UK, with BT extending their “Adopt A Phone” scheme, which started back in 2008.
At the boom of the boxes, there were around 100,000 kicking around in the ’90s, but now it’s estimated that around 20,000 are in use today. Since the scheme began, around 7,200 of the famous booths have been taken on by communities to be given a new lease of life, with many serving purposes including book swaps, coffeeshops, and galleries.
If you think your community can benefit from one of these red slices of history, you can apply to the scheme via the BT website, and explain why you believe a phone box could help. If successful, your community could be given the kiosk for just £1.
As for the Arsenal, we’ll go on the assumption that the football club isn’t being sold for a quid just yet, but by all means, purchase a phone box to ring up owner Stan Kroenke to verify that information!
Visit the BT page here to register your interest in one of the 1,000 £1 phone boxes up for grabs. Remember to raise a glass for their 100th birthday!