London East, UK - UK mobile phone use continues to increase and few people ever need to use a public telephone box. So British Telecom (BT) have transformed some unused telephone boxes into Street Hubs with fast Wi-Fi but are also offering around four thousand more iconic red boxes for adoption and alternative reuse. It costs one pound to adopt a phone box but it is only open to local authorities, Parish or local community councils, registered charities and private land owners with a red box already on their land.

Over many years the adoption scheme has already offered over six thousand red phone kiosks and they have been transformed and reused as mini libraries, art galleries, museums or even defibrillator kiosks.

However private individuals are not allowed to adopt a kiosk and they are sold instead by X2 Connect. Find X2 listed in the Salvo directory. Old phone boxes can also be found for sale in architectural salvage yards or listed for sale on the Salvo online marketplace. Renovated boxes are often proudly displayed in the garden by their new owners and some have even been reused as greenhouses or showers. They have also been a favourite of celebrities. Buyers have also come from overseas and the iconic red boxes have gone to countries such as Greece, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi and the US.

The red British telephone box has a fascinating history. The K6, also known as the Jubilee kiosk, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and in 1935 to commemorate George V's jubilee these K6 red telephone boxes were set up in villages throughout the land much to the chagrin of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England which denounced them as eyesores complaining of the insidious intervention of red into its picturesque villages. The Post Office was supported by the Royal Fine Arts Commission and Sir Edwin Lutyens in support of the chosen red, now known as Post Office Red and given its own British Standard - BS538. The red phone box was to become a symbol of Britain and was a familiar sight around the UK in towns and villages. BT was privatised, and the first red kiosk to be given listed building consent was a K2 in London Zoo's parrot house. At the same time BT had been replacing the old ones with modern K7s and K8s and started auctioning off the old K2s, K4s, and K6s. Production of the traditional phone boxes finally ended in 1985 but many old style red boxes still remain around the UK.

in 2006 Banksy, well known for his street art even copied a red K6 phone box, cut off at an angle with pieces of road stone around the base. The 'British Phone Booth' was later sold at auction by Phillips de Prury & Co, New York in 2008 and then again in 2014. The 'Submerged Phone Booth' was described by Phillips, 'as a statement on the demise of what had once been an iconic presence in art, entertainment and society; renowned and quintessentially British, references ranging from Superman to The Beatles to Alfred Hitchcock, have strong associations with the object.'

See the BT link to a adopt a telephone box for reuse in your community.

The image shows a K2 red telephone box currently for sale on the Salvo online marketplace.