![]() ![]() Last month, what is claimed to be the smallest art gallery in the world opened in a phone box in Settle, north Yorkshire. However, the people at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth tell me their renewable energy powered telephone box was deemed uneconomic by BT. One obvious use would be to have solar energy stored during the day to illuminate the kiosks at night as a sculpture or as a beacon for passers by. Another man has made a business out of restoring booths. One wag suggested that as they were too often used by drunks urinating maybe they should be turned into chemical toilets. Here are a few: a shower cubicle, a coffin, an emergency shelter for unpredictable weather, a Doctor Who artefact (though it would have to be bigger on the inside … ), a mini greenhouse, a sales point for newspapers or deliveries from the internet, a kennel for tall dogs, a PhoneBoo (suggested, would you believe it, by the founder of audioboo.fm), a coffee dispenser, an ATM cash machine (but it would be a magnet for robbers), an "island of tranquillity" piping soft music for stressed out people, a local tourist information point, or as one expat American said, just leave them as they are as "the most recognisable symbol to all foreign tourists". Many kiosks have already been converted to alternative uses and there is no shortage of ideas, as I found when I asked around, including putting out an appeal on Twitter. But now they are in danger of becoming a mausoleum for the analogue age unless something creative is done. Since then, they have become a part of Britain's heritage, along with cream teas, warm beer and the Tower of London. Designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1924, the red kiosks were first introduced two years later in London and other parts of the country. This provides a rare opportunity to either keep the kiosks as they are or turn them into a new form of public art. It is offering local communities the chance to take them over for £1 if they will maintain them or £300 a year plus VAT if they keep them as a working payphone. ![]() ![]() It is for this reason that thousands are being disposed of by BT. Sadly, it is hardly ever used now – killed by the unstoppable march of the mobile phone. We have a red telephone kiosk, one of the most beautiful examples of street architecture ever devised. S ome people have fairies at the end of their garden. ![]()
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