When will Preston’s Grade II-listed red telephone boxes return?

Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and introduced in 1935 in celebration of the Silver Jubilee of King George V, large numbers of the K6 – or Kiosk 6 – model were installed around the country, making them a recognised symbol of 20th Century Britain.

Preston City Council said there appeared to have been a telephone kiosk on Market Street, on the west side of the former head Post Office, in the 1930s.

A photo from about 1935 shows a single telephone kiosk at the northern end of the building, where it joins the Box/Fish Market, on the same spot as the lone kiosk that stands detached from the other eight.

This earlier telephone kiosk appears to have been cream-coloured and is likely to have been a K3.

It was replaced with the current K6, which, judging from the Tudor crown with a flatter base, was one of the earlier K6s models.

By the 1970s, a further eight K6s had been added.

Six of the kiosks are adorned with the Tudor crown and pre-date 1953, the council said.

Three kiosks have the St Edward’s Crown. Of these, one has integral crowns, therefore dating to sometime between 1953 and 1955.

The remaining two have slots where the crown is placed, which would suggest that they date to 1955 or later.