History of the Kiosk - Page 1

The United Telephone Company introduced the first freestanding call "offices". These were small wooden huts where a three-minute call could be made for "tuppence" (less than 1p). Not all of these had a coin box mechanism; some operated by a penny-in-the-slot mechanism on the door whilst others had a fee collect by an attendant. By 1906 these were operated by the National Telephone Company and were known as kiosks.

The Post Office took over in 1912 and, although they made improvements to the interiors, there was no standard format for the kiosks. In 1921 they introduced the first standard phone box. Kiosk No. 1 (K1), which was primarily intended for use as an open-air public call office in rural areas. It was similar in design to the old wooden call offices but was made up from reinforced concrete and the roof featured a wrought ironwork spear and scrolls. Although very elegant it was considered that a better design could be found.

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In 1924 The Post Office organised a competition requesting leading architects to submit ideas for a new cast-iron kiosk. The winning design was by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960) who was responsible for the design of Liverpool Cathedral. The bright red colour of the K2 was first seen on the streets in 1926 but proved to be too costly to introduce nationwide. Only 1,500 were made which were restricted to London.

The Post Office needed a design that was economical enough to be used outside of London so Scott designed the K3 as a variation of the K2. This was made out of reinforced concrete and cost half the price of the K2. They were first introduced in 1927 and painted in cream, which was considered more in keeping with rural settings. More than 12,000 K3 kiosks were installed nationwide but due to their concrete construction these proved to be fragile.