In a cartoon-like moment, with BT revving the bulldozers and the townspeople standing together in front of the much-loved red phone boxes, the iconic booths have until Saturday to be adopted or face the scrapheap.
Despite being an iconic part of the British landscape, the proliferation of mobile phones means the phone boxes just aren't being used any more.
However, villages and local authorities can adopt the boxes, and plans are afoot to turn them into notice boards, greenhouses or even miniature art galleries.
Loss makers
Over half of the boxes are loss-makers for BT, so it's no surprise the company wants to scrap them... especially as many of them appear to be an 'escort' service ad-venue or a public urinal.
One village has already rescued a box at the princely sum of £1, despite the parish council leader admitting nobody used it.
The 'falling phone boxes' sculpture in Kingston Upon Thames, using eight of the booths leaning on one another, also attracts many visitors per year, so maybe there's still a future for an extinct concept.
Your comments (1) Click to add a new comment
neonatty
November 2nd 2008
1. So when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere and need to make an emergency phone call (because your mobile has no signal) you will find an art gallery, or notice board!
Very helpful cheers BT!
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