The box in Meols, Merseyside has been turned into a small museum honoring the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The box was their makeshift booking office in the early days and the box's number (6323003) was used in the song "Red Frame White Light"
"To this day, it is still likely the highest-charting song entirely about a public phone box."
I grew up with these things, but they look so weird now, like a Tardis.
I remember having fun as a kid placing a reverse charge call from one phone booth to another across the street. Apparently the operator didn't have a way of knowing the number you were asking to make a call to was a phone booth, so your buddy across the street answers the operators call and graciously agrees to accept the reverse charge call (which is then free - no need to put any money in).
- someone told me about a fish—n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland
- I told my team, one of them asked “just fish?”
- I replied “batter fried pizza too”
- one of them made the inevitable comment about defibrillators
- I pointed out many of these red kiosks have been repurposed to hold defibrillators and went looking for images
“3 courses including Soup, Pizzas, Haddock, Spicy Fish,
White pudding, King Rib, Chefs dish of the day. Hot desserts with Custard, Cold desserts i.e trifle and cakes, Cold Meats, Pasta, Salad, Whippy Ice cream.”
I think OP is referring to this https://www.thebellrock.co.uk/lunch-buffet which does appear to be a fish-n-chip buffet of sorts (amongst other things) which has been in various tabloid newspapers in the last month or so.
I was just thinking how it'd be great if there were newer, modern things like this that had sprung up in response to newer technologies.
I guess it's one downside of dematerialisation with digital tech - I can't think of a single thing that would make sense. Everyone's got their own virtual portal to all the new technologies that come out, there's not much to look at out in the world.
Maybe as more progress happens in physical 'world of atoms' type things we'll see a bit of this come back.
As someone that tries to survive (every day more difficult) with just a dumbphone with me, I just fantasized about a parallel universe where all those kiosks still existed, and they were somehow like computer that you can briefly rent, to do the things people do with a smartphone. Perhaps you tap a card, and it picks your accounts, and you can quickly Whatsapp someone, check your email, call an Uber or use Google Maps (maybe even check hacker news, but with time limit?!)
Maybe then many people would stop carrying their own portals, as you can briefly use the public ones for the one-off situation where you need it, but enjoy a portal-free mind the rest of the time. Also quite useful in case emergencies as it seems those portable-portals tend to run out of battery, or get lost or damaged...
There was a brief moment around the turn of the millennium where that was what some of us were expecting. I was in college just after that and there were some free Internet kiosks, which combined with the ubiquitous free-to-use computer labs on campus, did a pretty good job of making this type of lifestyle possible, to the extent you could store your important documents online (much harder though in a pre-Dropbox, pre-Google Docs world!). Or another thing that was a big trend then was Portable Apps. On a flash drive on your keychain, you'd have installs of apps that you needed, together with their data and whatever documents you might need.
There was a brief period before that where some airports had pay phones with text terminals and modems built in, so you could dial up your corporate email or CompuServe. I swear I did not dream this.
In some Asian countries electric scooters with swappable battery packs are very common, and they have roadside battery swap stations where (for a subscription fee?) you can take a freshly charged battery and leave your old one. Seems like a great idea.
Just went through Orlando airport and saw something called "power rod" that is basically that for small power banks: you drop your depleted bank and pick up a fully charged one. If I were a US-only traveller, I can see myself using it.
> - Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries
Drop boxes!
I was part of a team prototyping these some 20 years ago. I highly doubt we were the only team doing so, but we were certainly unaware of any commercially available/deployed stations at the time. I was writing the software, in particular the orchestration of the locks and event bus for the transmissions.
Lots of fun from trying to fathom how undocumented solenoids operated, to trips to various countries for remote and environmental testing, and destructive tests simulating someone driving a truck into an installation (i.e., by deliberately driving a truck into one!)
The nerdiest moment was taking a mainboard model that we were getting intermittent faults with and recreating the exact environmental conditions to recreate the problem. This involved incubating the mainboard in a sealed environment chamber to control temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. The fault was bit-flipping because electrons were jumping rails when the microchip(s) were cold and damp.
I don't know if they still exist, but for a while when pay phones were disappearing in the US, NYC converted a number of them into free WiFi access points.
I love seeing the occasional phone box in a quaint village which has been converted into a super compact library. It reminds me that community spirit and trust are alive.
Without even looking I assume this is the art installation in Kingston Upon Thames (a lovely town outside London, and next to Hampton Court). I remember this from childhood as I used to get my haircut opposite these phone boxes and regularly shopped with my nan at the Wilkinson's on the corner (an everything shop like a small Walmart).
Wilkinson's is no longer there. Replaced by an arcade style venue called Urban Fun, I think.
Many Kingstoners probably think of themselves as being in London. There's some graffiti on the way in to London on the A3 that says "Surrey not Surrey".
Guess that makes sense assuming the cinema is still round the corner.
I miss the days of the CEX store when it sold import games just round the corner as well.
Considering you have to travel through New Malden, Raynes Park (which for me is the border), and Norbiton to get to London, they would be wrong. I always assume many think like that as it potentially increases house prices but just having a TFL tap and go bus doesn't make somewhere London.
Here in Australia, public payphones, instead of being removed were all made free.
They provide a lifeline to women fleeing domestic abuse, who need to contact services without their phone being tracked. Also to homeless and other vulnerable people who may not have access to a phone.
Statistics show lots of calls to emergency services, centrelink (Australia's welfare agency) etc...
There's one near the Houses of Parliament, tourists often shoot photos there, and are surprised when the inside is filled with stickers advertising prostitutes.
Those are the urban ones. The ones in the countryside were useful sometimes if you were trying to get a taxi or a lift. They often had plants growing in them.
The box in Meols, Merseyside has been turned into a small museum honoring the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The box was their makeshift booking office in the early days and the box's number (6323003) was used in the song "Red Frame White Light"
"To this day, it is still likely the highest-charting song entirely about a public phone box."
https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2022/08/30/meols-merseyside-c...
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/omd-telephone-box
I grew up on the Wirral and and moved to USA in my early twenties I’m nearly 50 now and that 632 3003 gave me absolute frisson mate, nice one.
I grew up with these things, but they look so weird now, like a Tardis.
I remember having fun as a kid placing a reverse charge call from one phone booth to another across the street. Apparently the operator didn't have a way of knowing the number you were asking to make a call to was a phone booth, so your buddy across the street answers the operators call and graciously agrees to accept the reverse charge call (which is then free - no need to put any money in).
If curious why I posted this:
> someone told me about a fish-n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland
if it’s the fish and chip shop (buffet is a different thing here), i’ve been there and they do a banging fish supper.
The Bellrock lunch buffet, £15 weekdays.
“3 courses including Soup, Pizzas, Haddock, Spicy Fish, White pudding, King Rib, Chefs dish of the day. Hot desserts with Custard, Cold desserts i.e trifle and cakes, Cold Meats, Pasta, Salad, Whippy Ice cream.”
https://www.thebellrock.co.uk/lunch-buffet
I think OP is referring to this https://www.thebellrock.co.uk/lunch-buffet which does appear to be a fish-n-chip buffet of sorts (amongst other things) which has been in various tabloid newspapers in the last month or so.
I was just thinking how it'd be great if there were newer, modern things like this that had sprung up in response to newer technologies.
I guess it's one downside of dematerialisation with digital tech - I can't think of a single thing that would make sense. Everyone's got their own virtual portal to all the new technologies that come out, there's not much to look at out in the world.
Maybe as more progress happens in physical 'world of atoms' type things we'll see a bit of this come back.
As someone that tries to survive (every day more difficult) with just a dumbphone with me, I just fantasized about a parallel universe where all those kiosks still existed, and they were somehow like computer that you can briefly rent, to do the things people do with a smartphone. Perhaps you tap a card, and it picks your accounts, and you can quickly Whatsapp someone, check your email, call an Uber or use Google Maps (maybe even check hacker news, but with time limit?!)
Maybe then many people would stop carrying their own portals, as you can briefly use the public ones for the one-off situation where you need it, but enjoy a portal-free mind the rest of the time. Also quite useful in case emergencies as it seems those portable-portals tend to run out of battery, or get lost or damaged...
“They have phones in booths now? Finally! I don’t have to lug this cell phone around.”
Hermes Conrad, Futurama Season 6, Episode 6: Lethal Inspection
There was a brief moment around the turn of the millennium where that was what some of us were expecting. I was in college just after that and there were some free Internet kiosks, which combined with the ubiquitous free-to-use computer labs on campus, did a pretty good job of making this type of lifestyle possible, to the extent you could store your important documents online (much harder though in a pre-Dropbox, pre-Google Docs world!). Or another thing that was a big trend then was Portable Apps. On a flash drive on your keychain, you'd have installs of apps that you needed, together with their data and whatever documents you might need.
There was a brief period before that where some airports had pay phones with text terminals and modems built in, so you could dial up your corporate email or CompuServe. I swear I did not dream this.
Some suggestions:
- Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries
- Power bank "banks" or charging stations for smartphones in indoor spaces like malls
- QR codes on stickers/ads in public spaces are a sort of bridge between the physical and digital worlds
In some Asian countries electric scooters with swappable battery packs are very common, and they have roadside battery swap stations where (for a subscription fee?) you can take a freshly charged battery and leave your old one. Seems like a great idea.
Just went through Orlando airport and saw something called "power rod" that is basically that for small power banks: you drop your depleted bank and pick up a fully charged one. If I were a US-only traveller, I can see myself using it.
> - Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries
Drop boxes!
I was part of a team prototyping these some 20 years ago. I highly doubt we were the only team doing so, but we were certainly unaware of any commercially available/deployed stations at the time. I was writing the software, in particular the orchestration of the locks and event bus for the transmissions.
Lots of fun from trying to fathom how undocumented solenoids operated, to trips to various countries for remote and environmental testing, and destructive tests simulating someone driving a truck into an installation (i.e., by deliberately driving a truck into one!)
The nerdiest moment was taking a mainboard model that we were getting intermittent faults with and recreating the exact environmental conditions to recreate the problem. This involved incubating the mainboard in a sealed environment chamber to control temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. The fault was bit-flipping because electrons were jumping rails when the microchip(s) were cold and damp.
How about:
I don't know if they still exist, but for a while when pay phones were disappearing in the US, NYC converted a number of them into free WiFi access points.
Tesla Supercharger stations.
I love seeing the occasional phone box in a quaint village which has been converted into a super compact library. It reminds me that community spirit and trust are alive.
Actually here in Germany that the favourite use for our old yellow boxes, many have become book sharing hubs.
The ones in Hull are all cream coloured: https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2023/07/13/hull-university-ea...
The crowns are also ground off I think
https://www.thek6project.co.uk/the-crowns-on-k6-telephone-bo... there's a note about Hull's phone boxes at the bottom of this page.
https://www.kcom.com/about-us/history/ they were operated by a separate company, so the crown wasn't appropriate.
The connection has timed out
The operation timed out when attempting to contact www.thek6project.co.uk.
Hopefully this database is integrated with OpenStreetMap.
OSM has extensive tagging scheme for phone booths: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dtelephone
Someone pushed them all over:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/rxcGDAc8Dv924zkv8
(It's art: https://secretldn.com/telephone-box-installation-kingston/)
Without even looking I assume this is the art installation in Kingston Upon Thames (a lovely town outside London, and next to Hampton Court). I remember this from childhood as I used to get my haircut opposite these phone boxes and regularly shopped with my nan at the Wilkinson's on the corner (an everything shop like a small Walmart).
Wilkinson's is no longer there. Replaced by an arcade style venue called Urban Fun, I think.
Many Kingstoners probably think of themselves as being in London. There's some graffiti on the way in to London on the A3 that says "Surrey not Surrey".
Guess that makes sense assuming the cinema is still round the corner.
I miss the days of the CEX store when it sold import games just round the corner as well.
Considering you have to travel through New Malden, Raynes Park (which for me is the border), and Norbiton to get to London, they would be wrong. I always assume many think like that as it potentially increases house prices but just having a TFL tap and go bus doesn't make somewhere London.
Here in Australia, public payphones, instead of being removed were all made free.
They provide a lifeline to women fleeing domestic abuse, who need to contact services without their phone being tracked. Also to homeless and other vulnerable people who may not have access to a phone.
Statistics show lots of calls to emergency services, centrelink (Australia's welfare agency) etc...
Nice! Would be great if this had a map view as well.
Check the split by regions: https://www.thek6project.co.uk/where-are-all-the-boxes/
Love it!
Everywhere?
There's one near the Houses of Parliament, tourists often shoot photos there, and are surprised when the inside is filled with stickers advertising prostitutes.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zLRxTFUXErcsrkCi7
To be fair, that's the authentic London telephone box experience of old.
I think the actual experience was stepping into human poo, needles and overwhelming stench of piss and let's not go into why the telephone was sticky.
Those are the urban ones. The ones in the countryside were useful sometimes if you were trying to get a taxi or a lift. They often had plants growing in them.
And some were in very remote locations. The Nant y Maen phonebox in Wales springs to mind although I think it no longer has a working phone in it.
Some of them were indeed. They were very handy in pre-mobile phone days for when your car broke down, or you had to contact someone.