alt.hn

5/21/2026 at 6:04:17 PM

Where are all the UK red telephone kiosks?

 https://www.thek6project.co.uk/

by Kaibeezy

5/21/2026 at 8:30:17 PM

I grew up with these things, but they look so weird now, like a Tardis.

I remember having fun as a kid placing a reverse charge call from one phone booth to another across the street. Apparently the operator didn't have a way of knowing the number you were asking to make a call to was a phone booth, so your buddy across the street answers the operators call and graciously agrees to accept the reverse charge call (which is then free - no need to put any money in).

by HarHarVeryFunny

5/21/2026 at 7:55:21 PM

The box in Meols, Merseyside has been turned into a small museum honoring the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The box was their makeshift booking office in the early days and the box's number (6323003) was used in the song "Red Frame White Light"

"To this day, it is still likely the highest-charting song entirely about a public phone box."

https://www.thek6project.co.uk/2022/08/30/meols-merseyside-c...

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/omd-telephone-box

by joezydeco

5/21/2026 at 7:39:41 PM

If curious why I posted this:

  - someone told me about a fish—n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland
  - I told my team, one of them asked “just fish?”
  - I replied “batter fried pizza too”
  - one of them made the inevitable comment about defibrillators
  - I pointed out many of these red kiosks have been repurposed to hold defibrillators and went looking for images

by Kaibeezy

5/21/2026 at 7:44:40 PM

> someone told me about a fish-n-chip buffet in Arbroath, Scotland

if it’s the fish and chip shop (buffet is a different thing here), i’ve been there and they do a banging fish supper.

by dijksterhuis

5/21/2026 at 8:02:59 PM

The Bellrock lunch buffet, £15 weekdays.

“3 courses including Soup, Pizzas, Haddock, Spicy Fish, White pudding, King Rib, Chefs dish of the day. Hot desserts with Custard, Cold desserts i.e trifle and cakes, Cold Meats, Pasta, Salad, Whippy Ice cream.”

https://www.thebellrock.co.uk/lunch-buffet

by Kaibeezy

5/21/2026 at 8:00:58 PM

I think OP is referring to this https://www.thebellrock.co.uk/lunch-buffet which does appear to be a fish-n-chip buffet of sorts (amongst other things) which has been in various tabloid newspapers in the last month or so.

by tonylucas

5/21/2026 at 7:16:51 PM

I was just thinking how it'd be great if there were newer, modern things like this that had sprung up in response to newer technologies.

I guess it's one downside of dematerialisation with digital tech - I can't think of a single thing that would make sense. Everyone's got their own virtual portal to all the new technologies that come out, there's not much to look at out in the world.

Maybe as more progress happens in physical 'world of atoms' type things we'll see a bit of this come back.

by davnicwil

5/21/2026 at 8:32:15 PM

I don't know if they still exist, but for a while when pay phones were disappearing in the US, NYC converted a number of them into free WiFi access points.

by HarHarVeryFunny

5/21/2026 at 7:26:50 PM

As someone that tries to survive (every day more difficult) with just a dumbphone with me, I just fantasized about a parallel universe where all those kiosks still existed, and they were somehow like computer that you can briefly rent, to do the things people do with a smartphone. Perhaps you tap a card, and it picks your accounts, and you can quickly Whatsapp someone, check your email, call an Uber or use Google Maps (maybe even check hacker news, but with time limit?!)

Maybe then many people would stop carrying their own portals, as you can briefly use the public ones for the one-off situation where you need it, but enjoy a portal-free mind the rest of the time. Also quite useful in case emergencies as it seems those portable-portals tend to run out of battery, or get lost or damaged...

by arximboldi

5/21/2026 at 8:17:15 PM

There was a brief moment around the turn of the millennium where that was what some of us were expecting. I was in college just after that and there were some free Internet kiosks, which combined with the ubiquitous free-to-use computer labs on campus, did a pretty good job of making this type of lifestyle possible, to the extent you could store your important documents online (much harder though in a pre-Dropbox, pre-Google Docs world!). Or another thing that was a big trend then was Portable Apps. On a flash drive on your keychain, you'd have installs of apps that you needed, together with their data and whatever documents you might need.

by xp84

5/21/2026 at 8:22:55 PM

There was a brief period before that where some airports had pay phones with text terminals and modems built in, so you could dial up your corporate email or CompuServe. I swear I did not dream this.

by wrs

5/21/2026 at 8:01:55 PM

Some suggestions:

- Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries

- Power bank "banks" or charging stations for smartphones in indoor spaces like malls

- QR codes on stickers/ads in public spaces are a sort of bridge between the physical and digital worlds

by c7b

5/21/2026 at 8:35:31 PM

In some Asian countries electric scooters with swappable battery packs are very common, and they have roadside battery swap stations where (for a subscription fee?) you can take a freshly charged battery and leave your old one. Seems like a great idea.

by HarHarVeryFunny

5/21/2026 at 7:50:23 PM

How about:

  - tap-to-pay paypoints
  - drive-under toll collection readers
  - signal-blocking phone pouches at concerts
  - anti-facial-recognition dazzle makeup
  - wireless chargers in the table at McDonald’s

by Kaibeezy

5/21/2026 at 7:51:18 PM

Tesla Supercharger stations.

by robotresearcher

5/21/2026 at 8:00:40 PM

I love seeing the occasional phone box in a quaint village which has been converted into a super compact library. It reminds me that community spirit and trust are alive.

by roebk

5/21/2026 at 8:03:27 PM

Actually here in Germany that the favourite use for our old yellow boxes, many have become book sharing hubs.

by riedel

5/21/2026 at 7:12:47 PM

Someone pushed them all over:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rxcGDAc8Dv924zkv8

(It's art: https://secretldn.com/telephone-box-installation-kingston/)

by alexfoo

5/21/2026 at 8:42:25 PM

Without even looking I assume this is the art installation in Kingston Upon Thames (a lovely town outside London, and next to Hampton Court). I remember this from childhood as I used to get my haircut opposite these phone boxes and regularly shopped with my nan at the Wilkinson's on the corner (an everything shop like a small Walmart).

by ktallett

5/21/2026 at 7:02:46 PM

There's one near the Houses of Parliament, tourists often shoot photos there, and are surprised when the inside is filled with stickers advertising prostitutes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zLRxTFUXErcsrkCi7

by nailer

5/21/2026 at 7:09:46 PM

To be fair, that's the authentic London telephone box experience of old.

by muglug

5/21/2026 at 7:20:37 PM

I think the actual experience was stepping into human poo, needles and overwhelming stench of piss and let's not go into why the telephone was sticky.

by varispeed

5/21/2026 at 8:27:20 PM

Those are the urban ones. The ones in the countryside were useful sometimes if you were trying to get a taxi or a lift. They often had plants growing in them.

by nephihaha

5/21/2026 at 8:43:33 PM

And some were in very remote locations. The Nant y Maen phonebox in Wales springs to mind although I think it no longer has a working phone in it.

by alexfoo