Hull’s cream-coloured phone boxes given Grade II-listed status

source - Wikimedia Commons/kitmasterbloke

Hull’s cream-coloured phone boxes given Grade II-listed status

Well here we go, straight back in the saddle with this latest article about a rare variant of an already-endangered piece of technology - the public call box.

In this instance the phone boxes in question are not the earlier, more famous Giles Gilbert Scott-designed glass-and-metal K2 to K6 series of red boxes but rather the later K8 design from the pen of architect Bruce Martin, which were introduced across Great Britain in the late 1960s to supplement the existing 50,000-odd K2 and K6 boxes that were still prevalent at the time.

source - Wikimedia Commons/Oxyman

Markedly different from the designs that had come before it, the K8 boasted a modern light and airy Sixties feel thanks to large single panes of glass bereft of any intricate metalwork.  Intended to be easier to repair and maintain, over 11,000 K8s were installed up and down the country - only replacing existing K2s and K6s where absolutely necessary.  While many continued in service over the next 20 years or so, the design ultimately never gained as much appeal as the iconic red boxes that came before it.  It's only really lasting claim to fame is that it sported a slightly different shade of crimson - "Poppy Red" - one which went on to become the standard colour and was retrospectively applied to all existing boxes throughout the country.  However, the design's supposed strength over its predecessors - its ease of maintenance - was ultimately outweighed by the frequency of repairs as a result of vandalism.  Allied to the fact that it actually cost more to manufacture than the older models, a great number were subsequently replaced by the (rightly) unloved KX-series following the creation of British Telecom after the privatisation of the GPO in the 1980s.   As of 2023, a mere fifty-odd K8s still exist around Britain - some, I'm pleased to note, already with listed status.

source - Wikimedia Commons/Tim Green

Rare K8 phone boxes in Hull awarded listed status

Unusual among these few remaining K8s are the handful still to be found in the city of Hull, which was (and still is) the only place in England where the telephone network was run by either the local council or a private provider and not the GPO/ BT.  As a result, all Hull's phone boxes were painted not the traditional red but a rather fetching shade of cream to reflect their independence from the national network.  Now I am pleased to see that nine of these surviving boxes have been given Grade-II listed status by Historic England, hopefully preserving them for future generations to at least see what we used - and sometimes still use - before the advent of the mobile telephone (for, I am delighted to note, these particular boxes continue to fulfil their original function, containing as they do working telephones which must also now be preserved in working order).  

I join with the Twentieth Century Society and the people of Hull in celebrating this decision, which gives me great hopes for the future of all the remaining 10,000 or so phone boxes in this country, that there will never come a time when we have none left. 

Villagers make stained-glass NHS window for phone box

source

Villagers make stained-glass NHS window for phone box

There have been many wonderfully inspiring stories to come out of this current crisis from all around the world (not least the phenomenal fund-raising efforts of top chap Captain - and now soon to be Sir - Tom Moore), which have all served to lighten the mood of the planet, giving us all faith in humanity and hope for better days to come.  Far too many in fact to feature on this blog, in fact (instead I direct your attention to the Sunny Skyz website, which is just the sort of thing I was looking for when I first set up Eclectic Ephemera but which does the good news motif so much better than I could have hoped to).

This article from last month, though, particularly caught my attention with its vintage bent, featuring as it does a favourite design classic of mine and a sadly fast-disappearing piece of historic technology - the red telephone box.

source

As someone who has recently seen three kiosks removed from my local area - sadly including a timeless K6 - it always makes my heart sing when I see one of those traditional red boxes hanging on in some corner of the country or being adopted by the community and given a fresh purpose such as a library, cash machine, art gallery or as in this case to house a defibrillator.  I myself have a wild idea for re-purposing a K6 call box, but that's something for another post!

Inspired by a similar story from Suffolk a few years ago, the 'phone box in this instance, in the town of Crich in Derbyshire, also has the additional feature of hand-painted stained-glass windows with scenes and representations of local life and businesses replacing the old glass.  Now added to the existing panes is a new image honouring the exemplary work being done by the NHS and a fine example of the art it is too.  Created by retired nurse Kate Richmond, who took stained-glass lessons (and well worth it, by the looks of things), and other members of the local community it is especially significant not only in light of the current situation but also of Mrs Richmond's previous job and the kiosk's new purpose as home to a defibrillator.

source

Mr & Mrs Richmond and the people of Crich are to be commended for coming up with a charming and representative tribute not only to their local area but also the wider national effort and in a way that adds to the existing appearance of a lasting design.  Long may it continue to exist and serve the people of Crich and - if more red 'phone boxes must lose their original purpose - inspire others to save them in a similar manner.

Boffins chapify Amazonian assistant using Belgian blowers

Antique Alexa telephones by Grain Design

More news featuring items from Belgium, although "news" is perhaps not quite the le mot juste seeing as this article has been languishing in my Drafts for over a year.  I had intended to start a new blog with it but then it occurred to me that I have enough of a job keeping this one going without adding a second one and besides which the idea featured in the article still fits the Eclectic Ephemera ethos, so here it is.  Despite being more than a year old the subject matter is still current and interesting and follows on nicely from my previous Belgian-based Tintin post.

source

Indeed an antique Belgian telephone (like the Regent model, above) with Amazon Alexa built in is something I could just see Tintin using were he around today, although whether he could stretch to the eye-watering asking price is another matter (then again he might if he had Red Rackham's Treasure - get on with it Peter Jackson!!  Ahem, sorry.)

In any event (and to return to the current subject) the re-purposing of vintage - and in this case, non-functional - equipment to include modern technology is something I consistently admire, not only as a means of giving a new lease of life to what would be an otherwise redundant item destined for the scrapheap but also for just the sheer incongruity of the latest tech being hidden within something supposedly obsolete.

source

I have featured similar ideas here before in the shape of the Tweephone - a rotary-dial telephone capable of sending Tweets - and the Twittertape, which went one better and used an antique tickertape machine hooked up to the internet to do the same thing.  Now we have the Alexaphone, a genius idea out of Los Angeles which sees antique telephones being converted to run Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant technology, such as is more commonly found in that company's Echo speakers.

As with most modern technology virtual assistance AI is largely a closed book to me and something I intend to keep that way, as the idea of artificial intelligence in general is not something I am especially keen on.  Nor am particularly enamoured with the glut of so-called "smart" technology now available - not only do we have the likes of Google Assistant, Windows Cortana and the aforementioned Amazon Alexa but also smartphones, smart TVs, smart meters and now even flippin' video doorbells all of which are recording your every word and movement!  Where it will all end I wouldn't like to say, but the whole business doesn't seem very "smart" at all (except for the companies that are harvesting the resultant data) and is something I will vehemently oppose for as long as possible.

source

It is for this reason as well that I like the idea of these devices, for one particular aspect of their original design, the telephone hook, thwarts one of the virtual assistant's most invidious foibles - the fact that it is always "on" and therefore listening to everything that's going on around it.  Not so with the Alexaphone, which is only on when you lift the receiver!  No fear of some faceless, polo-necked eye-tea wallah in a metal and glass office somewhere in California transcribing what you had for breakfast this morning.  Instead just lift the receiver, ask your question and Alexa will respond - then just thank it and hang up.  Brilliant!

Whether this marriage of vintage and modern technology is worth upwards of $1500 I'll leave you to decide but - practical or not, art or no - it is nevertheless a splendid idea and one I am glad to see realised.

Phone pioneer speaks for first time in 128 years

Phone pioneer speaks for first time in 128 years

It is a source of constant amazement to me how technological advancements at the turn of the last century have allowed sounds and images that would previously have been lost or unseen to be recorded and documented for future generations - us - to uncover and experience.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in this recent story from the Smithsonian Institute (via the B.B.C.), featuring the inventor of one piece of modern electrical equipment being recorded for posterity by another piece of modern electrical equipment(!).

We Had No Idea What Alexander Graham Bell Sounded Like. Until Now.

In this 1885 recording we can [just about] hear the voice of Alexander Graham Bell, de facto inventor of the telephone, as picked up on a wax cylinder made at his Washington laboratory.  Only now able to be played back using incredible, modern computerised techniques (I find the incongruity of a late 19th/early 20th century turntable mounted on a high-tech 21st century computer system most amusing) this short excerpt of speech is the first time Bell's voice has been heard and identified.  One can just imagine it uttering the immortal words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you” and it is, as the accompanying article states, a landmark discovery in the history of not only Bell but of the era too.

The Smithsonian is without doubt one of the foremost museums in the world and this story is a remarkable testament to their collections, their preservation & restoration abilities and their obvious love and enthusiasm for all aspects of history.  Thanks to them (and also researchers at the US Library of Congress and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) this fantastic recording can be heard for the first time in nearly 130 years and, more importantly, saved for future generations to appreciate.

Forms, 'phones and frustrations

"Nooo, I DO NOT have a mobile number..."

I think I've made it clear on this blog before, but I am one of the few people remaining in this world who does without (and perfectly well without, I might add!) a mobile telephone and who has absolutely no intention of getting one.  (I warned you all some time ago, when I first mentioned the fact, that it might one day lead to a bit of a rant and today may well be that day!).  I don't think it is possible for me to succinctly explain how much I hate them - they way they rob people of manners and considerateness, replace common sense and restraint with imprudence and immoderation, and encourage banality over self-reliance and initiative - and just how much I consider their "essentialness" to be one of the biggest myths ever perpetrated on the modern world.

Before this turns into too much of an essay I should explain the series of events that has led to this post.  It all began the other week when I attempted to fill out an online form for something or other (I think it was a job application).  For the first few fields all was going well until I got to the box marked "Telephone (Mobile)".  Now up 'til this point I had always been able to bypass the request for a mobile number and simply move on.  Except this time a whole load of red warning signs and highlighted instructions appeared upon my pressing "Submit".   For perhaps only the second time in my experience, a mobile telephone number was a "required field"(!).

Source: ffffound.com via Bea on Pinterest

Not being the owner of such a device I had to make up some vaguely mobile-like number (lots of 0s and 7s are my favoured choice) before I could continue, but it confirmed to my mind an ever-more prevailing attitude that I (and others) are encountering.  My suspicions were first aroused when I perceived that, when providing my details at the request of some official lackey or other, the question "Do you have a mobile number?" had begun to subtly change.  First it lost its genuinely querying inflexion and became almost rhetorical (with the level of surprise registered when I explained that I do not own such an infernal appliance inversely proportionate to the perfunctoriness of the question).  Now the transformation is all but complete as the question has tended to become "What is your mobile number?" as if it is a foregone conclusion that I must possess - and make a note of this term, taken from The Chap magazine, for I have yet to find a better description - a chirruping horn of damnation. 

"He doesn't have a mobile number?!"

Then, as proof that I am not alone in this, Tupney encountered the selfsame problem last week in relation to her e-mail account.  I commiserated with her in the comments section using a phrase I've coined to describe this increasingly common attitude, which seemed to strike a chord with some of the other commenters and so convinced me that maybe there was blog material in it.  That phrase is - the presumption of technology.

I suppose when there are 62½ million of the things in the country, with 85% of the population in thrall to them and the "average person" owning two of the confounded machines the odds are stacked heavily against the likes of Tups and me, leading to the aforementioned conclusion on the part of most people/forms.  Still, it is dashed frustrating for those of us who get by perfectly well without to encounter this presumptive attitude.

"People walking around with 'phones stuck to their heads..."

Yet there is still 15% of the population without a mobile telephone, so is it not jumping the gun a little to start making it a compulsory field or otherwise insisting on the provision of a number?  The 'papers are full of stories about rural broadband (or lack thereof) & mobile provider coverage and the recent record low turnout for the England & Wales Police and Crime Commissioners election has been blamed in part on a lack of information - information that was almost exclusively available online but to which not everyone had access.  We may be seeing the creeping advancement and acceptance of technology into our lives but it is by no means universal and perhaps there should be a greater realisation that folk who haven't bought into this "technology for the sake of it" malarkey (or aren't in the position to benefit from it) still exist.

How long before it becomes impossible for those of us sans mobile 'phone to get by on a day-to-day basis?  Already we are seeing the advent of "pay by mobile" in certain high street shops and car parks.  Will mandatory mobile numbers beget mandatory mobile 'phones, perhaps?  In a related aspect, many adverts and competitions seen on television are increasingly becoming accessible only for those with a Farcebook account.  Again, I do not have one.  I almost feel marginalised!

FOR GOOD!
source

I expect I'm preaching to the converted here and I'm sure many readers who do have mobile telephones use them sensibly and recognise them for the occasionally-useful tools they can be.  Nor am I suggesting we all go back to tin cans and string; I've mentioned in the past how I like to see (and use!) modern technology fused with vintage æsthetics but I'd also like to see it married to certain vintage values and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.  Part of that should be the acceptance - the understanding - that mobile telephones are not the be-all and end-all of things and are (and should remain) optional.

Until then, my stock response of "I don't own a mobile telephone" is becoming ever more long-suffering and the numberpad on my keyboard more frequently employed.

Telephone tweets and Facebook telegraph

At the end of last year I blogged about Little Printer, a miniature printer that I felt owed much to the tickertape machines of the early 20th Century and which can run off strips containing news items, lists, addresses and tweets.  At the time I wondered to myself why someone had not taken the idea a step further, or a step backwards rather, and rigged up a proper piece of vintage kit to work with the likes of Twitter.  It surely wasn't beyond the wit of the technically-minded vintagista - no doubt we would see something before too long, I thought.

Well, I was right.  Doubly so, as it happens.  Firstly - and just yesterday - I came across the Tweephone, the product of young minds from the Ukraine who have come up with the wizard idea of converting an old rotary-dial telephone to be able to send tweets over the Internet.  Even today telephone keypads still have corresponding letters assigned to each number - now only used for text-messaging (so at least the concept should be familiar) and those funny aide-memoires more popular in the United States, "'phone 1-800 CONTRIVED" - so the principle is exactly the same.  Digital meets analogue!  At the moment merely a one-off design study, but with enough interest - who knows?  Even the oldest rotary-dialler could send tweets!  (I should mention at this point that I don't tweet and to be honest find the whole thing a bit silly, but if you're going to do it best do it properly - and tweeting from an old GPO 200 series would seem about right!).



The unseen chap in this next clip has gone one better, though, and produced almost exactly what I was thinking of when first I saw the Little Printer - an actual tickertape machine wired up to tap out tweets!

The Twittertape Machine is also in the prototype stage but simply uses an old tickertape machine rigged up to the Internet and which will tap out your tweets in much the same way as it would have spewed out important stock movements a century ago.  The Mark II will apparently go one better - wi-fi and Farcebook-compatible (again, if that's your sort of thing - it isn't mine, I don't even have an account - then again this seems like the proper way to go about it: if I got my hands on one even I would reconsider my stance on social networking!).



Nevertheless, these vintage takes on modern communication are most welcome and a wonderful way to indulge in 21st Century correspondence while adding a decidedly 20th Century flavour.  As I said with the Little Printer it even adds more of a personal and tangible touch to messaging.  I also happen to love the way it makes a mockery of Twitter's USPs - speed and compactness.  But as I've said before, anything that gives these old devices a new lease of life is OK in my book and I hope success attends both enterprises as I would really like to see more of the two in the future.

Castle Hedingham regulars to restore £1 phonebox to 1930s glory

source

Castle Hedingham regulars to restore £1 phonebox to 1930s glory

Castle Hedingham is a charming mediæval village in the north of Essex, close to Colchester (and actually lies on the Roman road to Cambridge).  It retains the Norman-era Hedingham Castle as well as several original timber-framed buildings; it is also home to the Colne Valley Railway heritage line.  In short, it is an historical gem.

The locals know this too, which is part of the reason why the area has managed to retain so much of its rural character. Now the parish council and The Bell Inn public house are further adding to that character by adopting the classic red telephone box that stands opposite the pub, with the intention of restoring it to its 1930s glory - complete with period adverts and signage!

Image courtesy of Chris & Sarah Plows/PicturesOfEngland.com

So thanks to the residents of Castle Hedingham and the owners & patrons of The Bell an iconic telephone box will soon be given a new lease of life as a centre-piece of a traditional English village, in a great example of civic pride and co-operation.  Excellent news all round and yet another welcome addition to this delightful little corner of Essex.

Footage shows world's first mobile phone

Footage shows world's first mobile phone

EVE'S WIRELESS

A delightful article here, proving that there truly is "nothing new under the sun". Although I really dislike the pervasiveness and myriad unpleasant aspects of the modern mobile telephone, this historic precedent is wonderful in so many ways that I can't help but admire it. How better things might be today if people had to wrap a wire around a fire hydrant and carry an umbrella as an aerial before they could use their mobiles!

Berkshire village celebrating victory in battle against BT for red phone box

Berkshire village celebrating victory in battle against BT for red phone box

In this age of mobiles, instant messaging and the like, it is all too easy to think of the humble telephone box as a relic of a bygone age. I'm glad to say that this story proves that the trusty public call box still has its place in British society, and long may it continue to be so. It is also most gratifying to see that community spirit is still alive and well in modern Britain, in that an important aspect of local life has been reclaimed in the face of a large, impersonal corporation. Splendid stuff all round!