Say Goodbye To London’s Iconic Red Telephone Boxes!

Georgie Hoole • 7 February, 2017

Think of London and you think of red buses, black cabs and red telephone boxes. Right?

Well, it appears the times are a-changin, and the iconic red telephone boxes are getting a 21st Century makeover. Designed by New World Payphones, the new boxes will be ultra-functional — complete with superfast WiFi powered by Virgin Media, weatherproof touch screen functions (including local information, journey planners and maps), and digital advertising screens. Oh and they’ll be black. So nowhere near as photogenic nor quintessential…

phone-box-new-world-payphones — [Amscreen]

Around 100 of the modern boxes are already on the streets, but there are plans for at least 500 more to roll out this year. For every new phone box, they’ll get rid of an old one. (The only consolation being that they’ll also plant an urban tree every time, via a partnership with Trees for Cities).

london-phone-box-revamp-red-iconic — [Amscreen]

Remember last year we told you that BT were also installing their own version of the upgrades and replacing the classic red boxes with WiFi kiosks?

Feature Image: Flickr/www.twin-loc.fr

Tags: history, news, phone boxes