The famous red telephone booths are an essential attribute of London streets. Over the years, their purpose has changed, and now they are not used for phone calls, but more often just serve as a backdrop for tourists posing for perfect photos showing that they have visited England.
With the invention of the mobile phone, the true purpose of the phone booth became irrelevant, and many of them fell into disrepair. However, an English company is working to ensure that these recognizable objects, which are synonymous with British history, are not left to rust in a landfill.
Unicorn Restorations has created the country’s largest “cemetery of telephone booths” in Merstham (Surrey), where all the boxes that have served their time are collected. The restoration company is proud to return these rusted iconic symbols of London to their former splendor.
The company’s employees spend up to 30 hours dismantling each old booth, repainting it in the same shades of red that were once provided by the Main Post Office, and inserting new glasses to give it a complete look. After the repair, the booths can be sold at different prices — from 4 to 20 thousand pounds.
Among the offered models are three classic models of red telephone kiosks: K2, K6 and K8. The K6 model, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in honor of the silver jubilee of the coronation of King George V in 1935, is considered the most recognizable, standard.
About 60,000 K6 model phone booths have been installed throughout the UK, so many consider this model to be a typical red phone booth. The K2 model is considered to be the original phone booth, as it was created in 1926, and the K8 model appeared in 1968.
All photos: Vintages
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