Red mailboxes and call boxes

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A red post box and the red telephone box, British cultural icons. Photograph taken at St Katherines Docks, London.

The first post boxes were erected in 1840, when Rowland Hill suggested the idea of roadside letter boxes for Britain. Letter boxes of this kind were already being used in countries such as France, Belgium and Germany.

The first red phone boxes were installed in 1921. These were the ‘K1’ design boxes but two years later a competition was held to design a new box. Subsequent designs resulted in the 'K6' the most popular type of phone box seen in the UK.

With calls from phone boxes down 90% in the past 10 years, many have been decommissioned and transformed into a variety of uses including libraries, museums, bakeries, mini art galleries and even housing defibrillators.

The K2 was Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, based on Sir John Soane’s mausoleum. Giles’ grandfather George designed the Albert Memorial & his father is responsible, through Watts & Co, for the furnishings and vestments of most C of E churches.

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