Red phone boxes deserve new lease of life – The Yorkshire Post says

EVEN in the age of mobile phones, the Sir Giles Scott-designed red telephone box remains one of the iconic symbols of Britain.
By YP Comment
Published 12th Jul 2020, 16:45 BST
Old-fahiined red phone boxes, like this one in Harrogate, are enjoying new leases of life. Photo: Bruce Rollinson.Old-fahiined red phone boxes, like this one in Harrogate, are enjoying new leases of life. Photo: Bruce Rollinson.
Old-fahiined red phone boxes, like this one in Harrogate, are enjoying new leases of life. Photo: Bruce Rollinson.

Instantly recognisable landmarks, and still a source of wonderment for tourists (before the lockdown), they deserve a new lease of life.

And this civic pride is self-evident as communities become more ingenious with their uses for these redundant kiosks.

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One of the latest conversions has seen the last red box on Scarborough’s seafront turned into what may be the world’s smallest heritage centre for tourists to visit.

This phone box in Harrogate has become a mini-library.This phone box in Harrogate has become a mini-library.
This phone box in Harrogate has become a mini-library.

It contains archive photographs of the resort’s seafaring and shipbuilding past, and an audio-commentary which talks visitors through Scarborough’s history.

A legacy of the Adopt a Kiosk scheme launched by BT, it is ironic that there’s now scope for a directory of red boxes to visit to supplant the old phone books that have also become a victim of time.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

Related topics:Yorkshire PostBritainScarboroughYorkshire

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