Tag Archives: phone box

Set dressing

Tuesday 29th September 2026, 9.20am (day 5,514)

Fake phone boxes, 29/9/26

In the 21st century, even more than wearing hi-vis gear, the status of being in possession of a Filming Permit allows one to infiltrate public space with almost total impunity. The clutch of large and mysterious trucks, the erection of ‘No Waiting’ cones and signs proclaiming the colonisation of the area (in this case, the junction of Pall Mall and Booth Street, Manchester) until some unspecified time on Thursday…. it all cries ‘film set’ to me. The clincher is seen here, though. Clearly the production is of a period piece, 20th century stuff — because no one installs phone boxes like these any more. They’re definitely props — trust me.

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Cultural icon, late

Tuesday 14th July 2026, 10.35pm (day 5,437)

Phone box, late, 14/7/26

Sustaining this blog requires me to at least try to see familiar things in a new light now and again. There was no particular reason why the phone box in the centre of town caught my eye (on the way home from the cinema), but it did. Perhaps it was just looking very much like itself. These things, collectively, are a recognisable British icon — not quite technology, not quite architecture, a mixture of the two. This one is still functional as far as I know (that is, you can make telephone calls from it): it was being used as a library for a while but that is no longer the case.

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Phone box book swap

Wednesday 17th June 2020, 11.05am (day 3,219)

Phone box book swap, 17/6/20

This is very Hebden Bridge. Strictly a one-person only library, however — which I guess at the present time is seen as healthy.

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