# Britain's Classic Red Phone Boxes Are Getting a New Lease of Life > Britain's iconic red phone boxes are becoming cafes, libraries and workspaces. Here's how a street-corner legend is finding a whole new purpose. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/klassycheskye-krasne-telefonne-budky-brytanyy-poluchat-novuiu-zhyzn/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-12-06 - Categories: Culture, Historic Sites, Leisure, Restaurants, England, Food & Drinks --- From its bright red cast-iron body and domed roof to the royal crown and panelled windows, the red British phone box is an icon recognised the world over. Giles Gilbert Scott's celebrated design was first unveiled after a 1924 competition, and variations soon appeared across the country, from London street corners to remote villages. More than 90 years on, the phone box is still a favourite backdrop for thousands of selfies, yet with smartphones now everywhere, these British classics have started to feel obsolete. Some, though, are being saved, as entrepreneurs and communities repurpose them into unexpected spots for swapping books, grabbing a coffee or even enjoying a pleasant meal. ## Distinctly British ![A red British phone box on a city street](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-193-1-2025.jpg) Millennials may not have used them much, but phone boxes have long been part of pop culture in Britain, immortalised on the back cover of David Bowie's album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". Nigel Linge, a professor of telecommunications at the University of Salford and author of "The British Phonebox", reckons it all comes down to the look. Giles Gilbert Scott created a design that captured the public imagination, he says. "It was so distinctive, it looked dramatic on the street, in terms of the way it appeared, with the windows, the domed roof, the red colour." ## Adopt a Phone Box Recognising their iconic status, British Telecom launched an "adopt a kiosk" scheme, encouraging communities and businesses to buy red phone boxes for GBP1 (less than USD2) and give them a new lease of life. ![A repurposed red phone box on Brighton pier](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-193-2-2025.jpg) Among them were two on the pier in the southern English seaside town of Brighton, spotted by locals Edward Ottewell and Steve Beeken. "They were empty and neglected, and we thought we could sell sunglasses out of the phone boxes and hats from this brilliant spot," says Ottewell. The pair restored the Brighton kiosks, then set up the Red Kiosk Company with a plan to adopt 500 phone boxes across the country. They helped Londoner Umar Khalid turn a phone box near Hampstead Heath, a vast parkland in the city's northern suburbs, into the thriving Kape Barako cafe. Khalid says his kiosk gets photographed all the time and pops up regularly on Instagram and Facebook. In the summer months, Londoners can also enjoy Spiers Salads on the central square of Bloomsbury. In Birmingham, Britain's second largest city, locals rave about Jake's Coffee Shop. ## Phone Boxes as Community Hubs ![A red phone box in a rural British village](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-193-3-2025.jpg) Phone boxes are often associated with the British capital, but you'll also find them in the country's more rural corners. In the Scottish hamlet of Merivale in Ballogie, on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park, the community turned its local phone box into Scotland's smallest internet cafe, a digital oasis in the Scottish Highlands where 3G and 4G signals are hard to come by. The Ballogie phone box dates back to the 1940s and sits next to the Butterworth gallery, run by Sara Parker. Parker had the idea to run Wi-Fi from her gallery to the phone box and add a hot drinks machine. "It had to be repainted, we had to seal all the glass, it was leaking badly," says Merivale resident David Youngson, adding that it has helped bring residents together and become a focal point in the picturesque hamlet. Sometimes the locals take the coffee machine out of the phone box. Not for fear of theft, but because they worry the water might freeze. ## A Library to Browse ![A red phone box converted into a tiny book-lending library](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-193-4-2025.jpg) In a suburb of south-east London, another community came together to turn a phone box into the successful Lewisham micro-library. "The very fact that you can use it at the same time as someone else means you end up talking to people who would otherwise be complete strangers," says local "librarian" Susan Bennett. The Lewisham phone box is beloved by locals, and early fears about vandalism proved unfounded. "On the whole it's in good condition, because people want it to be," says Bennett. ## Work on the Move ![A phone box converted into a compact mobile workstation](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-193-5-2025.jpg) Pod Works is another company set up to transform phone boxes, this time into mini workstations for commuters and tourists. Their booths come fitted with printers, a 25-inch screen, a power unit with sockets and a hot drinks machine. Pod Works believes this is the future of mobile working. People sign up as members, book pods across the city and receive an access code for their chosen kiosk. "Right now phone boxes are neglected, they're becoming an eyesore. We wanted to repurpose them for the 21st century," says Lorna Moore, managing director of Pod Works. ## Preserving the Heritage ![A sleek modern telephone kiosk on a British street](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-193-6-2025.jpg) Two new types of modern, sleek phone kiosks were set to grace British streets in 2017. British Telecom introduced the Links kiosk, a screen offering advertising, information and Wi-Fi, while World Pay Phones planned a screen that keeps the iconic domed roof. "The phone box has evolved, it's still a point of access to telecommunications services, but of course the nature of those services has changed dramatically," says Linge. While some of the original red boxes are protected as historic treasures, Ottewell worries that others will simply be removed to make way for the new kiosks, making future conversions unlikely. "We want to protect and preserve as many as we can," he says. "It will create jobs, it will regenerate an area that's been neglected, and do some good." "We want to protect our heritage."