After privatisation in 1984, British Telecom started to introduce the utilitarian “KX100” phone box, a flat-roofed steel and glass telephone box to replace the iconic red kiosks designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. It did not go down well with the British public. After many of these familiar fixtures were unceremoniously scrapped, a noisy campaign was launched and 2,000 of them ended up being listed.
As time went on, British Telecom – now rebranded as BT, with a jaunty new blue-and-red piper logo – got wiser to the public mood and introduced a nostalgic new model with a curvy shape that referenced the originals, the “KX+”. So, like boxy Eighties taxis and Fiat Pandas, boxy boxes became a rarity themselves – you could almost get nostalgic for their uncompromising sharp edges and cheery, bright plastic doors if you tried hard enough.
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