The British Red Telephone Box is a familiar sight on the streets of this country, it is a very British icon. The first Red Telephone Box design was introduced in 1924, and by 1968 the Post Office had introduced its eighth design for a National Telephone Kiosk. Over the last eighty years the Telephone Box has become a symbolic piece of street architecture, whether in the our rural villages or on our urban highways.

The first Telephone Box was the K1, introduced in 1920 and a few years later a national competition was held to find a design for a new national telephone box. The winning design was submitted by the pre-eminent British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Though in the latter years of the twentieth century many were replaced by modern-glass kiosks, the Telephone Box occupied such a place in people's affections that those left were preserved and many were given listed-status protecting them from removal and destruction. Today, the Telephone Box remains a welcome sight on the streets of the Britain.

In March 2006, as part of a competition organised by the Design Museum and BBC Television to find Britain's favourite design icon since 1900, the Telephone Box was placed in the top ten by the British public.

Please click on the menubar at the top of the page to learn about the history of the telephone kiosk, view a photographic gallery and diagrams, multimedia files and online resources section and finally an A - Z of Telephone Box facts. Click on any of the the kiosk silhouettes/outlines for a history of that kiosk.