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@ChongMcBong2 жыл бұрын
have a look for a short film called "La Cabina". (its on youtube )its about people getting locked in phone boxes and taken away :)
@johnphantom2 жыл бұрын
There is still a telephone box on the end of the dock at Marina Cay off Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Works, too.
@trumanhw2 жыл бұрын
LOVE IT! Was checking last night for a new vid by you!!! :)
@guff95672 жыл бұрын
A: mobile phones mate
@harveybarvey50802 жыл бұрын
Thank you for NOT adding background music. This is something that is counterproductive to learning & concentration. Please do this with every video.
@ztoob88982 жыл бұрын
In the US, the phone booth was most famously the place Clark Kent would duck into to emerge as Superman. This was in the early comic books. By the time the Christopher Reeve movie came out, most phone "booths" had been replaced by zero-privacy open consoles, to discourage vandalism. The movie even had had a joking reference to the booth's demise.
@SuperRootUser2 жыл бұрын
I have to wonder just how many of the current production staff or even readers of Superman are aware of that facet of his history. Then again, Superman used to wear red underwear on the outside of his clothes, so change isn't so bad.
@Solnoric2 жыл бұрын
@@SuperRootUser there have been more than a few callback jokes on the subject.
@artdonovandesign2 жыл бұрын
I remember mahogany, fully- private phone booths in the old U.S. coffee shops and luncheonettes. A small fan would go on when the door was closed along with an incandescent ceiling light. Oh, and there was a mahogany seat
@casinodelonge2 жыл бұрын
I bet he never popped in there for a piss when he'd had a couple as the main alternate use if the phone boxes appeared to be...
@therealsnufkin2 жыл бұрын
Bill & Ted travelled through time in one too.
@hogshouse2 жыл бұрын
About 10 years ago, I purchased a phone box (K6) and spent the best part of a year restoring it. It now sits proudly on display in my garden. Great video, as always.
@andersjjensen2 жыл бұрын
Cool! And a heck of a lot more original than a small army of lawn gnomes! :P
@residentelect2 жыл бұрын
@@andersjjensen Oh God... Gnomes... You've just "triggered" a repressed childhood memory of the times I had to retrieve my football from the garden of our elderly neighbour 😳 I swear she had an army of the little bastards dotted everywhere; hiding between the shrubs and beds, underneath hedges, at the base of trees, and even a couple guarding the backdoor!!! I could feel their enamel painted eyes burning into my soul with every step up that garden path!!! To this very day I have to avoid the ornamental section of the garden centre!!
@computerjantje2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for keeping an old phone booth alive
@spacecowboy24832 жыл бұрын
That's awesome! Phone and line too?
@hogshouse2 жыл бұрын
@@andersjjensen ha ha oh yes. I'm not a fan of gnomes :-)
@charlesbeltington-smythe92292 жыл бұрын
The last red booth I used was in Soho, London. The interior smelt faintly of wee and was covered in ladies of the night business cards.
@mrs69682 жыл бұрын
ahhh simpler times when the whole world still smelled like a ashtray now it just smells like self entitlement
@loddude57062 жыл бұрын
You should try Oxford, their cards are still in Latin . . .
@bsadewitz2 жыл бұрын
@@mrs6968 One could argue that the pervasive odor of cigarette smoke in public spaces is the smell of entitlement ...
@Dudleymiddleton2 жыл бұрын
That's exactly how I remember them, too! 😀
@todd50822 жыл бұрын
Would u happen to have any of those phone numbers??
@paulhaynes80452 жыл бұрын
A nice surprise, Paul. Brought back so many memories. As a cub scout, I had to prove I could use a phone box for some badge or other by ringing up Akela. That was back in the pre-decimal days and 'push button B' phones - nightmare! And then, a few years later, there I was teaching my kids to use public phones. But, in such a short time, our kids from my second marriage have no idea what a phone box is! The last time I used a public phone was in a service station on the M6, more than 20 years ago. My girlfriend of the time had just got her first mobile, and I had to ring her to tell her I'd be late. Mobiles cost the earth to ring from public phones then, and she'd put a long answer phone message on her new phone. I actually ran out of 20p coins before I could leave a message!! And, inevitably, I got into trouble for not just being late, but for not letting her know...
@RichardFrost8002 жыл бұрын
Now I thought you may have given the infamous K2 police box.. Aka the Tardis, an honoury mention. Great vid Paul - hope your well 👍
@conspiricium5092 жыл бұрын
My favorite channel, never once have I seen this channel have a negative connotation or having said a bad word, I particularly like the day in the life video. Easy to digest and understand, and a huge array of topics, and immense amount of research and preparation into each video, thank you so much, I very much appreciate the huge effort to bring us all you have.
@BillHalliwell2 жыл бұрын
G'day Paul, Thanks so much for this video. I'm an Australian in my late 60s and I can vividly remember our phone boxes which, like the famous British ones were red and, like yours, they were everywhere. I think some of them even had the Queen's crown, but I could be wrong. The phone boxes were managed by the Post Master General's department (PMG) which, as the name suggests, was also our Post Office system. They were also in charge of installing and laying cables for business and domestic telephones. Like the UK; as time passed our phone boxes went through some truly ugly iterations until, today, those that one can find can range from a mere glass and metal covering for the phone and the top half of its 'customers', to the fully glass enclosed version; all lacking in any form of attractive or practical design. On my first trip to the UK, many years ago the King George phone boxes were still about in some abundance and I really liked their design and functionality. As an historian, I think they are important to preserve as much as possible as they mark a time in our technological history when local, national and international communication were, eventually, available to anyone with a sufficient amount of coins. Also, being a tiny bit of a Luddite, I like them because they made phone calls and nothing else. As handy as my smartphone can be, if I want to use it as such, I generally use my handheld phone as a telephone; that for me is pretty amazing enough when I recall that a telephone was a large Bakelite instrument on a table in the front hallway, or something similar sitting in a tiny 'building' out in the street. I would dearly love to purchase one but unless I win lotto that's not going to happen. It is so good to see that there are some of your countrymen and women who cherish the classic red 'telephone kiosk' and are doing their best to keep them in your landscape. Thanks again, Paul. Cheers Bill H.
@nickyoung47992 жыл бұрын
There are plenty of K6 phone boxes around Hull and Beverly in East Yorkshire, all painted cream. This is because the Hull Corporation telephone company was not taken over by the GPO. It still exists today as Kingston Communications
@thejacal27042 жыл бұрын
I remember in about 1991, my car (Austin Mini) broke down, and I had to walk about a mile to get to a phone box to call my dad, and I only had one ten pence piece!! . Great days.
@thesteelrodent17962 жыл бұрын
that's why we had call collect ;) my parents did not enjoy those calls
@bodegg22 жыл бұрын
When I refitted my bathroom a few years ago, I decided I wanted a converted phone box as a shower cubicle. These were available at the time in both K6 and K8 versions although they were very expensive and heavy! A compromise more within my price range was a basic aluminium shower cubicle that I sprayed with red 'rattle can' car paint, and added a 'Pull' sticker near the door handle and stuck two perspex reproduction 'Telephone' signs at the top of the glass. Quite effective!
@artdonovandesign2 жыл бұрын
Would love to see a photo. What a great idea!
@illustriouschin2 жыл бұрын
Paint flaking off?
@paulhaynes80452 жыл бұрын
Bloody cramped for a shower! We inherited a shower about that size when we moved into our current house - it was a nightmare. Now it's gone and we have a shower over the bath. I hate those plastic curtains, but the sheer amount of space is just amazing!
@RCAvhstape2 жыл бұрын
Better to use a TARDIS for a shower. Lots of room inside. More than you'd think looking at the outside.
@residentelect2 жыл бұрын
Sounds a cracking idea, but at the same time your ceiling would also be cracking (assuming your shower is upstairs of course) as the K2s can way approx 1250kg and the K6s/K8s can weigh approx 725kg. Sounds like you found the perfect compromise though mate.
@Reman19752 жыл бұрын
Apparently the vandles worked out that you could stick a car jack between the phone and the coin box, then crank it until the coin boxes fasters snapped. That's why BT started putting those thick pressed metal "Ramp" topped enclosures around the coin box. You could usually tell if someone had nicked the box on one of them in a rank of phone boxes, as people would be waiting outside to use this one rather than using the other ones, because the coin you put in for your call would just fall straight through. People would be putting the same 50p in over and over again to call up friends and family in other countries. :D
@RussellChapman992 жыл бұрын
As a holder for defib machines, has to be one of the greatest uses of phone boxes. I like the library idea too, as mobile libraries are pretty much no longer a thing.
@emmettturner94522 жыл бұрын
I didn’t start seeing them around here (Newnan, GA, USA) until a decade ago and now they are everywhere. They are usually a windowed cabinet on a pedestal near neighborhoods and sidewalks.
@SatelliteYL2 жыл бұрын
Both great. The booths are big why not put them both there? Makes it even more worth preserving to have more features
@CragScrambler2 жыл бұрын
Have both red phone boxes and mobile libraries where I live in the lakes district.
@MakeItWithCalvin2 жыл бұрын
Tom Scott did a really good video on that and I think it is a great use for them, especially if someone can begin to render aid before an ambulance crew arrives. That can mean life or death to a patient.
@fuckinantipope55112 жыл бұрын
Here in germany there are the famous yellow phone boxes from the Deutsche Post and many of them were refitted to small libraries in my region too. Such a creative and awesome way to reuse them! The phone booth at my local Imbiss (a type of german restaurant where you get fast food like fries, burgers or the amazing Currywurst) close bot that long ago. Smartphones were already everywhere when it got closed. Was sad to see it being removed because it looked awesome
@todd50822 жыл бұрын
Loved the video. How about a segment on the oldest pubs still active in the Uk? I’ve been to a few while visiting and I’m always amazed at the history of those old pubs. Sloped floors, slanted roofs but the doors still open and the beer still flowing.
@SuperRootUser2 жыл бұрын
At first I thought this seemed more like a subject of historical curiosity rather than technology. I forgot just how necessary phone booths were before cell phones and that most the people alive now have probably never used one. Like all technologies, their form follows their purpose, but their aesthics will be distinct to their designer's culture. The people who make these artifacts may not even realize it, but they really do put something of themselves into what they make.
@mtkoslowski2 жыл бұрын
Distressingly, in the metropolitan centers for the most part, they devolved into _pissoirs_ before finally being removed at the advent of the cell/mobile phone.
@BuzzKiller232 жыл бұрын
This makes me think of the payphone banks at the airports here in the us. There would be a wall with 10-20 payphones next to each other. Each time I visited the local airport there would be fewer and fewer phones there until they finally got rid of them all and repurposed the space.
@startedtech2 жыл бұрын
I haven't been to an Airport in 5 years, will be weird not to see them next time I go.
@patreekotime45782 жыл бұрын
Not just at the airport. They used to be in any public building and often even in bars!
@silverismoney2 жыл бұрын
I think the defib is probably the best idea. Plus i've seen several in London that are free WiFi access points too. Recently EE has started doing a trial of putting mmwave 5G antennas on them.
@ChaJ672 жыл бұрын
If you are concerned about communicating after a 'natural' disaster strikes, probably the best option is to have fiber to the home and a backup power source. A lot of home communications gear can run off of 12V, however we just don't setup enough gear with the backup battery option. Then there are options like having a long run UPS setup for your communications gear all the way out to having solar panels and a battery system for your home that can allow your home to run with no grid power. If you want to get into how the phone system works, if you have copper going somewhere, it usually goes to a humming box on the corner and then back to the CO (central office) via fiber. So while phone companies claim they will drive out their utility trucks to these boxes and recharge the batteries in them for the piles of them they have around town after doing major staff reductions, I think these assurances are highly suspect. So yeah, even if they did make that phone booth work, which they probably don't because nobody makes the communications gear to talk to them anymore and the copper to the CO where the old gear used to reside was cut long ago, it wouldn't work anyway. As mentioned above your best bet is to have the fiber run to your home and supply power to it during a power outage. The next best option is to have Starlink. Granted Starlink does not have a backup Internet only plan at the present time, for $100 / mo you can have a receiver and switch over to it when land based communications go down. Maybe if you have an RV, you spend the extra $25 / mo for the new mobile feature and have it double as your ISP when you are out and about in your RV. If you are curious, I did once find a public phone that was listed as "in service" according to a staff member of the facility I found it in, but she also mentioned it didn't work. What I found is they did seem to have it hooked up to a modern VRAD, which allowed it to have dial tone, but the VRAD didn't know how to actually talk to the pay phone, so you couldn't really use it to make calls; only hear dial tone telling you that it had a carrier signal. I found it in a regional welcome center run by the state. Apparently the state had the phone account on its books and never got around to taking it off, so the phone company never disconnected it. Seeing it wasn't actually used, the phone company got away with leaving it in a dysfunctional state and if they were ever asked about it, they could say that it had dial tone, so they were "supporting" it. The things you get when the state and phone company are both involved.
@paulhaynes80452 жыл бұрын
More memories flooding back as I read the comments. The smell! No, not urine, well not all the time... but those boxes had a smell all of their own. Not an unpleasant one, and probably mostly down to people smoking in them, but it was the same smell everywhere. Then there were the phone books (if they hadn't been ripped out) - they were stored upsidedown in large metal clips. So you had to swing the whole book up and then open it (only to discover - inevitably - that it was out of date!). And lastly, the doors. They had a strange closing mechanism - they didn't slam or click shut, but they always shut securely. There was some sort of spring mechanism which stopped the door slamming, but then ensured it closed slowly and properly. I haven't thought about that in years! I took it for granted then, but now I'd love to know how it worked.
@johncoops68972 жыл бұрын
In Australia, we used to have very similar red phone boxes. I fondly remember using them as a kid for shelter when it was raining! They've long since been transformed into the door-less open booths, with sides that only start about 3ft off the ground. I looked inside one a few weeks ago, and found it was 100% FREE for national calls, including to mobile phones. I guess it's less costly to give free calls than to have drivers going around collecting the cash, and to repair the damage from thieves trying to steal the money from them.
@rayoflight622 жыл бұрын
Thank you Curious Droid for this video. A video on a somewhat lighter subject is often delicious to watch. The phone box also had some negative sides. Mainly, the queues I often had to endure outside the box, waiting for other customers to call, when raining. Sometimes I was forced to listen to silly arguments told by people that were screaming out loud. Or being engaged on out-of-district phone calls that overextended, and I had to terminate the call ignominiously saying "sorry I ran out of coins", which sounded like an offence when at the other side of the call there was the girlfriend. In the '80s, I called home from work at lunchtime from a phone box; by driving less than a mile, I crossed the district boundary - so the phone call cost me few pennies instead of few pounds. One thing I recall clearly, a feeling of strong displeasure when the cabins were vandalised, in some situations it was a tragedy. Phone boxes were so essential; in a way young people can't imagine today. Thank you again, for the trip down the memory lane, very appreciated...
@leejohnson32092 жыл бұрын
I'm old enough to remember the comforting warm glow of a k6 on a wet winter evening. Phoning my dad to pick me up because I'd missed the last bus home. Putting in 20p and the click of the rotary dial. Those days are long gone now.
@nicolek40762 жыл бұрын
I seem to recall that those phone boxes that are adopted by communities are also still supplied with electricity, paid for by BT, because it would cost more to disconnect the supply than it costs (BT pays a flat rate for all electricity used by phones boxes). This makes them ideal homes for defibrillators, too.
@LesNewell2 жыл бұрын
Yes, there is one just down the road from me with a defibrillator in it.
@smelkus2 жыл бұрын
As well as phone booths dissapearing I don't know how long it's been since I was in a pub and the pub phone rang and the bartender called someone in the pub and said it's for you I wouldn't be surprised if it was about 25 years
@johnmat46782 жыл бұрын
Is there an IP Freely in the room? An IP Feely?
@jerribee12 жыл бұрын
@@johnmat4678 He's over in the corner with Hugh Janus.
@MattyEngland2 жыл бұрын
And Ivor Biggun
@williamhall6672 жыл бұрын
I've heard the landlord cal out for someone less than ten years ago. It was his wife telling him to get back home now 😂
@LordZordid2 жыл бұрын
In an episode of Futurama they believed that the Telephone Box in the past was used as a public toilet. Not far fetched actually.
@TheCimbrianBull2 жыл бұрын
I'm old enough to remember using phone booths to actually call from but also to pop in for a much needed piss.
@richard37692 жыл бұрын
Great to see another video from you. I hope you are well. I love your variety of short documentaries, from Apollo to phone boxes. Absolutely fascinating. Im 31 and remember using a phone box to call my mates in 2010 when i run out of credit on my mobile. Also called 0800 numbers in phone boxes before they were made free on mobiles. Take care and i look forward to your next video.
@gate7clamp2 жыл бұрын
When I was in Sweden 🇸🇪 their phone booths are still there but theirs no phones in America my old high school had a pay phone in the back near the cafeteria and they just recently took it down
@VG_1642 жыл бұрын
We have phone booths in Sweden???
@gate7clamp2 жыл бұрын
@@VG_164 yes mainly the old wooden ones in parts of Linköping and Stockholm
@Dakiraun2 жыл бұрын
Quite a similar story in Canada (and most other places these days, I'd think). Born in the mid 70s, I saw phone booths everywhere. Ours certainly weren't as iconic looking as those in the UK, but like there, they were just a common fixture. Now, I couldn't even tell you where a single one exists, if they even exist at all anymore. For all the reasons you covered though, it only makes sense that they'd be gone now.
@Theoryofcatsndogs2 жыл бұрын
I have not seen many phone booths in Calgary back in 90s. Yes, there are payphones here and there, but most of them are located in the train stations or big buildings like schools.
@Dakiraun2 жыл бұрын
@@Theoryofcatsndogs Yeah, as they started to thin out here (in Ontario) int he late 90s, that's where you typically still found them. Even into the 2010s they were still around those places, but no anymore.
@Theoryofcatsndogs2 жыл бұрын
@@Dakiraun Kinda sad. But they are not as pretty as the red British ones anyway.
@Dakiraun2 жыл бұрын
@@Theoryofcatsndogs Oh gosh no - ours were downright boring by comparison.
@stonelaughter2 жыл бұрын
I would like to see a similar article on the phones used inside the booths... fascinating stuff, thank you Paul!
@loddude57062 жыл бұрын
And the coin mechanisms - ".. & press button B to get your money back" - clicka clicka clicka clicka clicka etc. : )
@thesteelrodent17962 жыл бұрын
don't know if it's become publicly available now, but there used to be a lot of secrecy about how the internal mechanisms in the phones worked to reduce the chance people figured out how to cheat it
@squelchstuff2 жыл бұрын
@@thesteelrodent1796 The older systems were incredibly easy to cheat as I found out as an inquisitive child. Coins needed to be deposited before the dial was functional, and a call could be made. However, due to the way pulse dialling worked, it was also possible to circumvent this by tapping out the number on the cradle/hook - one tap for one, through to ten taps for zero. I didn't have many people I knew to call at the time, so it wasn't abused, but interesting and not well thought out by the designers all the same. Halcyon days....
@pleasureincontempt36452 жыл бұрын
This is why we can’t have nice things! I’m a Canadian and remember having toll phones without the iconic measures. There’s a certain bit of nostalgia associated with ours as well. I just lost dependence on them when I could afford a mobile phone. The city basically took the stations out for the same reasons. Vandalism and illicit opiate sales. When the ends no longer justify the means, I can’t blame anyone for putting their finances on the line for the sake of nostalgia. Well done!
@xliquidflames2 жыл бұрын
What a cool video. I am American so I can't speak to the nostalgia of the red ones. I do remember being young and what people called back then, a "computer geek". I got into pay phone "phreaking" for a while. The story of Captain Crunch was already legendary by then but we had a lot of fun coming up with small electronic devices to "phreak" pay phones. That's the other thing. We always called the pay phones instead of phone booths. By then, the early 80s, most of them were not booths anymore but free standing kiosks mounted on a sturdy pole or on a wall. They might have had a small overhang but a lot of them were just a black and chrome phone bolted to the wall.
@jesseturnip2 жыл бұрын
Along with the phone booths being removed in the US we also had Motorist Aid call boxes on the interstate highways with buttons you could push for fire, police, or vehicle brake down. You don't see them anymore either.
@MakeItWithCalvin2 жыл бұрын
Being I drive through areas with no service from time to time, I wish those were around more often.
@pipstein6122 жыл бұрын
We still have a working K6 in our remote village, last year I persuaded BT to service and repaint it. We have pretty sketchy mobile coverage and the one mobile mast was taken off line for a few days after a storm last year. Sadly I don’t see much of a future for it once the analogue systems are switched off by BT Openreach in 2025. The person who carried out the repair work had not long won the contract for most of the country, he travelled around in a van working when and wherever, the weather permitted.
@frankfortino98202 жыл бұрын
The last working one I saw was in West Virginia near the Green Bank radio observatory. That is a radio and cell phone dead zone to not interfere with the radio telescope.
@joncarter37612 жыл бұрын
Was born in the midlands in 86 and I sorta remember these, although the BT branded ones that were made from glass with vinyl stickers over them were getting more common and were the standard by the time I was in junior school in 1994.
@wilsonkj2 жыл бұрын
Glad to see you back and hope you are keeping well 👍🏻
@kevinshumaker37532 жыл бұрын
I was amazed and happy. when I visited a few years ago, to see so many Red Boxes around London, even though many didn't have phones in them (most were wifi and charging stations). I saw more pay phones there than here in the States. I was able to use a couple of the public WiFis for VoIP calls I had to make near Victoria Station. Thank you, Brits!
@wclifton968gameplaystutorials2 жыл бұрын
I find it kinda crazy that some supermarkets still have payphones; the Morrisons store closest to me still has a payphone next to an ATM! and it's still plugged into power and the phone line!...
@1984WillC2 жыл бұрын
I havent seen one of your videos lately but i love them. Going to have to go back and see what I've missed. Your shirt collection must be quite large by now! I'm sure many people would agree.. we'll watch anything you make on most likely any subject because you do a great job.
@densealloy2 жыл бұрын
What a wonderful script Paul! Thank you and have a great day!
@TheStuport2 жыл бұрын
ALLO ALLO From Across The Pond In Ohio! As kids, me and my siblings loved playing in phone booths and who amongst us wouldn't stop and reach into the coin return to see IF we got lucky😅 Once technology got going I'm pretty sure we ALL knew the Phone Booth was headed towards T-REX Country! Very much enjoyed this presentation! I'm one of The Curious Droid Cult who come to see The Shirt...and stay for the content!
@exMuteKid2 жыл бұрын
Vending machines were much better for finding left over change in the coin return lmao. I remember finding $1 to $5 on multiple occasions as a kid. Especially at Costco for some reason
@TheStuport2 жыл бұрын
@@exMuteKid That is true! I was lucky enough to find a phone booth with my twin brother. I reached in and found a Quarter, Nickle and a Dime! My brother instantly pulled the coin return lever and POW....more change clanged it's way down the box! We both stood there and did this for about maybe 20 minutes until the phone stopped being so generous! LOLOL We cleared almost $8 bucks and you would have thought we Won The Lottery....well...maybe we did at the time as we were around 7 or 8 years old but what a thrill that memory STILL gives me today! Cheers XMK😁
@andersjjensen2 жыл бұрын
Ah! Paul delivers, once more, on the promise to make any and all topic interesting. Phone boxes faded from my memory at exactly the rate they faded from the landscape. Never though about them again. But yes, they obviously had a development history as well as a decommission history. At some point a rather large number of people did nothing but drive around and check if boxes needed repairs... what are they doing now?
@markthursfield99962 жыл бұрын
Most of them have retired! But I'm working in IT...
@ManilvaRS2 жыл бұрын
I work In Gibraltar where they have several old red phone boxes of various types. Same with postboxes too. They’re quite a tourist magnet.
@DrWhom2 жыл бұрын
same in France
@ddpeak12 жыл бұрын
Good to see you back Paul, hope you are well and thanks for this video.
@harveybarvey50802 жыл бұрын
The best thing about this video is that there is no background music. I love this because background music only disrupts the learning process and is often annoying and distracting
@MrCapi552 жыл бұрын
Beautiful video, Paul. Yes, they are a Nostalgic Icon of The U.K.
@georgehelliar2 жыл бұрын
I can smell this video. The look may be recognisable globally, but if you ever used one, it's the smell that sticks with you
@Rich6Brew2 жыл бұрын
I walked past a working phone box (of the iconic design) only this afternoon, on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, UK.
@randalscott72242 жыл бұрын
Fond memories of using the red phone box as a convenient shelter in a howling gale or heavy downpour, as long as the glass was intact and it hadn't been used as a convenience!
@TheWacoKid19632 жыл бұрын
A scrapman in Gateshead, JJ Stanley, had hundreds of these in a yard near to the A1 & Metrocentre a few years ago
@mrgreatauk2 жыл бұрын
Oh wow that K4 model with the integrated post box and stamp dispenser is such a magnificent beast. Love it
@neiloflongbeck57052 жыл бұрын
But not if you were using it when someone bought a stamp.
@AliHSyed2 жыл бұрын
I love that your channel post videos about ICBMs well as British phone booth history
@brett42642 жыл бұрын
A follow-up about American phone booths would be nice. I've heard there's only one left working; somewhere in the southwest. I was surprised at how many were still left in the UK. I thought the number would be much smaller.
@BuzzKiller232 жыл бұрын
I think there's still a few of them out there. I work at a call center that does operator services for phone companies and we get payphone calls all the time. I don't have any way of knowing if they're in an actual phone booth, but lots of our calls have street noise in the background.
@labattomy2 жыл бұрын
There are quite a few still around, there is one around the corner from me in western New York and it still works! Owned by Frontier, and it is a pole with a small open enclosure that is just a little bigger than the phone itself. Nothing so cool as the UK boxes
@RCAvhstape2 жыл бұрын
What's also interesting is the connection between public phones and the origins of hacking in the 1970s. Jobs and Wozniak, before they started Apple Computers, used to hack pay phones for the hell of it, and built gadgets to assist them in this.
@paulbennett45482 жыл бұрын
This was an unexpected video that bought back a memory from 1970, My good lady and son and I had just moved into our first home. Baby number three was due any time. I was awoke by a severe nudge from my Lady. I think I've started says she, to which I replied 'that's nice' wallop I'm up and running to the local telephone booth. Only too find that all that is left is the back panel and roof, for some reason the phone did not work, I'm off to find another phone to call for the ambulance. All went well in the end. Jump forward to 2016, we are driving around the old homestead area and relating the story to our oldest child and new husband. As we approach the location of the old phone both and the climax of the tail we find the phone both in the same condition as forty years ago. priceless! Thanks for bringing that Back.
@Titot1822 жыл бұрын
Does this mean that without the phone box, the days of call girl calling cards are well and truly over? I most certainly remember growing up as a kid the dozens of phone boxes on Charing Cross Road and the West End filled to the brim with boobies! I remember the rage when the "new BT phone box" was introduced in the mid 90s and the public outrage. Living in the sticks now, it's nice to see that they've been repurposed into defibrillator spots.
@andrewfrance10472 жыл бұрын
Those days are gone. This internet thing makes their job of advertising so much easier, and the kids now get an introduction to "smut" there too.
@Titot1822 жыл бұрын
@@andrewfrance1047 I remember the days of having to use a 28.8k modem and cable and wireless to download the grainy potato renders of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson. Anybody remember the BT Internet Kiosks that sprung up in the 00's. Imagine trying to knock one off in pubic outside of Nelson's Column?
@mrs69682 жыл бұрын
love your channel and your distinct shirts bell has been on over a year now and I appreciate your health update a while ago and by all means please take your time because your content is always worth the wait I have a 2 part question... Have you always wore shirts like that or did you just start that style for these videos and where do you find your shirts? love from Milwaukee Wisconsin USA!
@mhoppy66392 жыл бұрын
Paul has mentioned his shirt sponsor quite a few times in the past so if you search up an older clip you’ll probably find it in the corner of the screen. Max, Yorkshire England. (Sorry can’t remember the company off the top of my head though!)
@SF-li9kh2 жыл бұрын
In India we had STD ISD booths until around 2005. Until around 2000 it usually had an operator outside who deals with the finances. Towards the end was when we got operator less phones once people no longer wanted to steal phones
@punditgi2 жыл бұрын
Quite a nice little video. Well done, sir!
@terrancecoard3882 жыл бұрын
Just after the ball dropped in Times Square on New Years 1975, four of us took refuge in a phone booth to escape the stampede of people leaving at the same time. They always show you the crowd gathering to watch the ball drop during the day but they don't show you what happens about a minute after when everyone realizes at the same time there is no reason to be there anymore. I cannot stress enough that is something to remove from your bucket list. Phone booths were very iconic in movies back in the day but the British Red Telephone Box was the best.
@DrWhom2 жыл бұрын
You mean removing from the bucket list outright, _before_ actually attempting the experience, right?
@terrancecoard3882 жыл бұрын
@@DrWhom Yes...the stampede is bad enough but the criminals will be out in force robbing people in droves because they can get lost in the crowd and the NYPD will do nothing/cannot do anything other than say sorry about your luck.
@mytmousemalibu2 жыл бұрын
The phone box or booth in the US didn't have quite the historical value as the lovely British ones, i still reminisce of the simpler times of my youth. Man I miss it! Glad I was a part of that generation and time. What we had a ton of here were pay phones. While I don't think I would use one today other than for nostalgia, I miss seeing them. Cellphones were nill, no social media, no internet, kids played outside and had to be back home in time for dinner. Yup, good stuff!
@robertgarrett50092 жыл бұрын
Love that you call the Elizabeth Tower, "Big Ben", the bell that chimes the hour and is very rarely seen.
@supermaster20122 жыл бұрын
Paul is such a box of surprises, he doesn't remotely look his age, can suddenly wear the most eye piercing shirts and now you're telling me he likes making edm? What.
@jfreelan19642 жыл бұрын
Your research for this iconic item is great. Didn't know or recognize that there were different models. When I was working over there in GB, my co-worker at the time bought one so He could take it back to the US. Hate to see them slowly disappear.
@Soknik012 жыл бұрын
Congratulations on one million subscribers!
@sincerelyyours75382 жыл бұрын
Those in the neighborhood where I grew up in the 70s would get chopped up by juvenile vandals as soon as the phone installers left the site. Not even security cameras would stop them. Today I most often see them in airports where I presume the watchful eyes of airport security personnel keeps the juveniles at bay. I was in Akihabara recently (Tokyo's electronics district) on one of my trips and saw several brand new phone booths on busy street corners sporting signs that said "Free Wi-Fi" inside. A case where modern and old coexist in harmony. The presence of many foreigners without roaming set up on their non-Japanese cellphones probably accounts for this.
@gregsiska85992 жыл бұрын
Good point. In a crowded area it is hard to find a quiet spot to make a call. An enclosed phone booth would make it much easier.
@David-yo5ws2 жыл бұрын
I helped a friend buy one at an auction in Wellington, NZ in a Telecom sell off. He got one at a bargain and I helped transport it to his house, down the path to the bottom garden, for use as a tool shed. It's on a hill and is still quite a feature to this day.
@smelkus2 жыл бұрын
The way you talk about 20th century telephone booths I couldn't help thinking of Rimmer from Red Dwarf going on about 20th century telegraph poles
@MattyEngland2 жыл бұрын
"Smoke me a Kipper, I'll be back for Breakfast!"
@TechGorilla19872 жыл бұрын
I saw many in down town Bologna Italy in about 2014ish. I was quite happy to see and touch one.
@JamesDOConnor19162 жыл бұрын
Thanks Paul another very interesting and informative piece 👍 👏 keep up the great work sir
@CaptainXJ2 жыл бұрын
The town next to mine had one of these while I was growing up (I live in the US), it lasted a long time, even after most of the US ones were removed. Eventually it went away though.
@simonwest94502 жыл бұрын
In Hull, the local phone network was managed independently from the national network so the K6s were painted cream instead of red
@paulhaynes80452 жыл бұрын
And, in Guernsey they are a very fetching shade of dark blue!
@emmettturner94522 жыл бұрын
Last year we were wiped out by a long-track EF4 tornado that also completely ruined the cellular infrastructure. A man even died from a heart attack because he couldn’t reach emergency services. Though it took a week to restore power, we actually got upgraded cellular service almost right away. You see, Verizon had not enabled 5G coverage in our area but they were already building it out. When the tornado destroyed the LTE infrastructure they moved a bunch of mobile cellular stations into the area and flipped the switch on the dormant 5G network. The nearby high school damaged but became a base of operations for water, food, etc. Within a day or two Verizon had a row of emergency booths at there with places for people to charge their phones and make other calls. I believe some of the mobile cellular stations were operating there too for LTE and to relay with surrounding 5G antennas.
@mikeclifton77782 жыл бұрын
Excellent video Paul and you're looking well!
@patreekotime45782 жыл бұрын
For me, the LACK of public telephones (as well as excessive charges for barely used landlines) is what finally convinced me to pony up for a cell phone after not wanting one for a very long time. In the US public telephone boxes had completely disappeared at least a decade ago. The few you still see on the streets are not hooked up and have simply been abandoned. It is really a shame. Because modern cell phones break easily and there have been many times I wished there was a public phone.
@hullinstruments2 жыл бұрын
There’s a wonderful video on KZbin of someone replicating a miniatures of the phone boxes. I believe there’s a video of the blue version, Which went viral. As a pattern maker, machinist, and now metrologist…. Im somewhat accustomed to working with precision daily. I was impressed with their build quality!!
@simon-d-m2 жыл бұрын
Ahh, but if you are thinking of Dr. Who, the police box wasn't a phone box as such. It was a little booth used by beat Bobbies (foot-patrolling policemen). Inside was a standing desk (shelf) where they could write up their notebook, and a phone connected to the police station. There was also a small cupboard, accessible from the outside, so that the public could call the station too (in an emergency--it had no dial!). I lived in a North London suburb as a small boy. Out shopping with mummy, we used to pass the police box on the High Street. I always wanted to see inside, but on the one occasion there was someone there, he was too busy to talk to me (some incident happening). One of the lamp standards in Trafalgar Square has a tiny police station built into the base. It's a very similar idea to the old police boxes, except I think it's circular inside.
@Gabriel871002 жыл бұрын
In Brazil we had the famous "Orelhões" (translated as "Big Ears"), they were still around until the early 2010's, then they vanished one by one and even became free-of-charge for its last couple of years. The last one I've saw was in my college campus in 2019.
@JJ-zg1hh2 жыл бұрын
Really enjoyed that slice of history.
@12345.......2 жыл бұрын
There was a phone booth in an antique store (may have been a reproduction) that I seriously considered buying. It would look perfect in the corner of a living room 🙃
@TheStuport2 жыл бұрын
By chance is it rude for me to ask what the Selling Prices was? Just "Curious"!😆 Cheers
@12345.......2 жыл бұрын
@@TheStuport $1200
@TheStuport2 жыл бұрын
@@12345....... Appreciate the response! Not knowing the condition up close, I'd say that was not too bad of a price all things considered! Cheers From Ohio
@brett42642 жыл бұрын
It would be cool if you had a vintage payphone inside that worked.
@loddude57062 жыл бұрын
@@TheStuport - "E.T, phone home, it's slightly cheaper than shipping a heavy, fragile, cast iron lattice box!" : )
@btetschner2 жыл бұрын
Very interesing video. I don't think I have ever seen one of those in the United States here, but they are super cool. Thank you for the video.
@D0RYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY2 жыл бұрын
same thing has happened in america. i used to have a beeper and would use payphones to call people back. they used to be everywhere now its impossible to find one.
@volvo092 жыл бұрын
Yeah, it has been ages since I saw a phone booth in the eastern US. I've seen old pay phones still on the sides of buildings, but I can't recall seeing a box. I was a kid when my dad had his pager for work (network support) and would have to find a phone as we were driving to or from a place.
@Capitan0Guinea2 жыл бұрын
Paul has the skill to make pleasant even the promotional material
@tactical_llamas2 жыл бұрын
"It would only ever ring when he was in the bath" the most British way to justify not having a phone.
@volvo1452 жыл бұрын
In Sweden it was about 1995 where cell phones become prevalent among adults in like 1998 and 99 most children 13 and up started to have them I bought my first on cell phone when I was 27 though totally uninterested in the technology before I got blind then I have to have a smart phone because speech to text and text to speech
@Milosz_Ostrow2 жыл бұрын
I still prefer carrying a few coins or a calling card to having to worry about the state of charge of a cell phone battery if I need to call for emergency road service, fire or police. The disappearance of public payphones is not an improvement as far as I'm concerned.
@gingernutpreacher2 жыл бұрын
Then you should worry I broke down and left my phone at home and all the phone boxes were broken
@Otto452 жыл бұрын
If you can worry about walking around with clanging coins & calling cards? Then you can also worry about keeping your mobile phone's battery. Stop being lazy!
@baronvonlimbourgh17162 жыл бұрын
At a certain point the cost outweighs the bennefits it brings. That is just how life works. It is just us old farts who care about things like these.
@spacecowboy24832 жыл бұрын
Great choice of topic, which I wouldn't have been able to come up with myself
@edgymushroom2 жыл бұрын
Missed you, man!
@sergepetiteau7652 жыл бұрын
As a french, i was more than happy to find a "red box" in the Highlands, in the middle of nowhere, long time ago. More recently, during a trip to London, i searched desperately for one and ... nothing. That was quite a disappointment.
@grumpyrocker2 жыл бұрын
We still have one in our Dorset village. But there's no phone in it. It's the village book exchange now.
@RobertOrgRobert2 жыл бұрын
There is a red telephone box in Liverpool cathedral ! Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s other little design !
@maxsmodels2 жыл бұрын
Nostalgia is subtle but but can have a powerful pull.
@Ganiscol2 жыл бұрын
Ah yes, the phone booth. The most important function to me was to prank call people. Good times!
@DrWhom2 жыл бұрын
I am looking for Amanda Hugginkiss
@lumpyfishgravy2 жыл бұрын
What I remember as a kid is the door being sooo hard to open. Back then there were 2p and 10p slots. Hardly anyone would have a "spare" 10p when pocket money was about 20p a week. You could buy 6 blackjacks (chewy aniseed sweets) for a penny. We got a phone at home when I was about 8. It was rationed and you had to join the queue and wait your turn (like the NHS today), which was some weeks. I was very proud when we had a phone number. It felt like we mattered!
@catlee80642 жыл бұрын
Now that shirt is its own form of communication....though i dont know what its trying to say!!!
@alanhearne67332 жыл бұрын
The red phone box in Walesby, Lincolnshire is now the local lending library... Brilliant!
@shaun__32 жыл бұрын
As a late 90s baby, I can only remember the KX100 and KX100+ versions in my area growing up, as I grew up in the decline thanks to the mobile phone, but still remember them being used! Interesting to learn the history of these things! Kids nowadays have no idea.
@stewbacca1172 жыл бұрын
I was quite happy to spot one of these outside a local flower and ornament shop shortly after arriving in Taiwan... It'd been a long time since I spotted any in the UK
@avrianpradiptya70612 жыл бұрын
Nice batik shirt! And a well presented topic as usual.
@metatechnologist2 жыл бұрын
I didn't know that I needed to learn the history of British phone boxes. But now I do.
@fustigate3141592 жыл бұрын
I went to college in the mid-2000s in the south-central US. Our campus and nearby shops/bar/restaurant district had red phone boxes :-) For a while, still with pay phones in them.