This website contains a history of Telephone Kiosks in Britain and information about the eight different national kiosk designs. This site also contains diagrams, images including photographs, and links to websites of further interest.

The Telephone Box is a familiar sight in Britain, they are immediately recognisable as a symbolic piece of street whose design developed over nearly eighty years. The network of telephone boxes was owned by The Post Office but this changed in 1984 when the phone network was privatised and they soon were replaced in vast numbers with a new modern design.

However, British Telecom had underestimated people's affection for the traditional telephone kiosk. After the vast majority of kiosks were removed, many have since reappeared on streets up and down Britain. The future existence of the surviving kiosks seems secure, and they will remain a welcome sight.

The history of public telephones in Britain began in 1880. In that year the government office of the Postmaster-General began to issue licenses for private companies to operate a telephone service for residential and business customers. By the end of the nineteenth century two predominant companies emerged, namely the General Post Office and the National Telephone Company. Both companies had their own telephone network, each with their own individual infrastructure.

Public telephone boxes were soon introduced on the streets of Britain in many varying different designs. Other, smaller telephone companies provided additional services, although over the coming decades these were incorporated into the larger companies. By 1912, the National Telephone Company was absorbed by the General Post Office, affording it a country-wide monopoly.