Tuesday 30 April 2013

Benches and listed phone boxes


The three benches outside the White Lion on Great Underbank have a "Three Rivers" theme relating to the Tame and Goyt which merge at Portwood to form the Mersey.

Behind them are a pair of K6 Telephone kiosks which are Grade II listed. The kiosks are identical, constructed in cast iron, with three glazed sides in eight registers with margin lights, and a solid rear side with reeded decoration. The Soane-inspired canopy dome is placed above the four arched sides, each with a crown in relief above a glazed panel inscribed 'TELEPHONE'. The kiosks are placed back to back and contain modern telecommunications equipment.

The archetypal K6 telephone kiosk was introduced in 1935 to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V and is commonly known as the 'Jubilee Kiosk'. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott as a development of his earlier K2 kiosk design of 1924. Its design has become iconic and represents the careful adaptation of Neoclassical design, influenced by the work of the Regency architect Sir John Soane, to a mass produced object with a modern technological function.

They are still in use.

For Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

6 comments:

  1. Great benches and phone booths.

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  2. Love the phone booths!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  3. Great British icons, those phone booths! Does 'listed' mean that they will be kept as historical?

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    1. Yes, more or less, listed means that they can't be altered or demolished without going through a process to "de-list" them but there are many cases of listed building disappearing due to lack of care (sometimes deliberately) on the part of the owner.

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  4. Lovely nostalgic Phone booths :)

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