Rare K8 telephone boxes around Hull and environs

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Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   Text © Copyright August 2023, JThomas; licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence.

Introduction

K8 telephone box on High Street, North Ferriby White 400 high

This article was prompted by the chance discovery of the decision by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England to list nine rare K8 phone boxes in and around Hull as Grade II listed buildings in Spring 2023.

The K8 or Mark 8 kiosk was was introduced in July 1968 and was designed in 1965-6 by the architect Bruce Martin . The brief was to update and simplify the classic K6 telephone box designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935.

In contrast to its more intricate predecessor, the K8 is notable for its modern and minimalist appearance and was designed to be simpler to repair and maintain having far fewer components.

Between 1968 and 1983 11,000 K8 phone boxes were installed across the UK and were a common sight. It is believed that only around 50 (approximately 0.5%) remain in their original position because most of them were removed by British Telecom following its privatisation in 1984.

The majority of the remaining K8 boxes are now situated in and around Hull because they were not the property of British Telecom. The reason for this being that Hull is the only place in England where the local council actively ran the public telephone network, having been granted a licence to operate from 1902 to 2007. Today, the network there is still operated by the independent Kingston Communications company. As a quirk of its independence from the national network, the K8s (the K1 and all K6s) in Hull are painted cream, rather than the red used elsewhere in the country.

Full list of cream K8 phone boxes listed as Grade II in and around Hull:-

1/ Main Street, Wawne
2/ High Street, North Ferriby
3/ Boulevard, Hull
4/ Princes Avenue at junction with Park Grove, Hull (two kiosks)
5/ Beech Avenue, Hull
6/ Church Gate, Hedon
7/ Main Street, Swanland
8/ Skillings Lane, Brough

Unlisted cream K8 Phone Boxes in and around Hull (there may be more not photographed on Geograph):-

1. Spring Bank West, Hull
2. St George's Road, Hull
3. Lairgate, Beverley
4. New Cleveland Street, Hull
5. Ellerburn Avenue, Hull
6. Moorfoot Close, Hull
7. Beverley Road, Hull
8. Princes Avenue, Hull
9. Northolme Road, Hessle
10. Chatsworth Street, Hull
11. Main Street, Paull
12. Beverley Road, Hull
13. Pickering Road, Hull
14. Holderness Road, Hull
15. Hurley Close, Hull
16. Leads Road, Hull
17. Holderness Road, Hull
18. Great Union Street, Hull
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