Iconic 60s phone box listed by English Heritage

After a 2-year campaign by the Twentieth Century Society to have examples of Bruce Martin’s K8 phone box protected, English Heritage has announced listed status for the first one. The box stands on the railway platform at Shrub Hill Station in Worcester and is a particularly well-preserved example of the design – now extremely rare nationwide. Designed in 1967 by Bruce Martin, after a GPO competition, the K8 was the last of BT’s great red telephone boxes, a modern, rational update to Giles Gilbert Scott’s K6.

The Twentieth Century Society had previously campaigned to save the earlier boxes and was successful in saving many of them for the nation. K8’s, which were too young to list at the time, had been largely forgotten until another campaign, begun in 2007, highlighted their plight.

The Society set up a website to trace the remaining examples, from which it forwarded the best ones to EH. A public request via Radio 2 elicited an incredible public response – demonstrating that the K8 was just as popular as the earlier designs.

The Society hopes the other 14 examples will also gain listed status. Out of an original 11,000 boxes only 60 now remain in public service. The one in Worcester has been listed Grade II as one of the very best examples.

For further images or information, please contact Christina Malathouni at the Twentieth Century Society on 020 7250 3857 or by email – jon.wright@c20society.org.uk