Ringing in the changes

Brr-ring Brr-ring! 

Unlike the example shown above in Carey Street at the back of the Law Courts, most of the old red telephone boxes on our streets are no longer in use as communication devices. They stand empty and dirty with broken glass windows, used for other things.

However, here and there, some have been transformed into little libraries, coffee shops, art installations and mini-greenhouses, such as just up the road from me near Archway station, London N19, where two K6 kiosks contain plants – behind the bus stop here at the top of Holloway Rd and at the end of Hargrave Park, installed to replace a metal consruction that was there in 2019. 

Further afield, others are sport street art, with paintings designed to look like someone is trapped inside, such as a diver painted on the rear/park side of this one in Regent Square and a similar one in St John Street.

I've just returned to this, having started writing it a few weeks ago. I'm only now back on the case, having finally attended to a swathe of unread emails, one of which is from Londonist Substack about this very subject – thanks M@, I now need not continue this any further. 

I have a Jane's London Substack account myself you know. 

K2 and K6 phone boxes – conservation or dereliction?

Happy new year people ... here's to a marvellous 2019!
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Tourists love 'em but the powers that be don't seem to give a wotsit!
K2 phone boxes are still a common sight on out high streets. But these and their successor, the slightly smaller K6, are falling into disrepair.
Most of us have mobiles/cellphones these days so there is scant need to utilise theses bright red icons anymore* but if they are to remain on our streets (and they should) then why are they in such poor condition? I mean, who is supposed to be managing and maintaining them**?

This thought popped into my head yesterday as I was passing Islington Central Library on Holloway Road. Contractors have recently been working behind scaffold and plastic sheeting giving the lovely 1906 building a clean but now the work has been completed I can see that the phone box on the corner is filthy! It already had some broken or missing window panes but just look at the state of it now...

As you can see it's covered in plaster splashes, muck and dirt, as is the pavement around it which forms part of the library's curtilage.
But it's not the only one that looks so bad. For instance, in Islington, there is another one in poor condition outside St Paul's church at the top end of Essex Road, and the pair outside Tesco on Islington Green are horribly neglected.
Yet in nearby Canonbury there are some glossy red well-painted examples such as this one outside The Canonbury Tavern. Why? Because this is a 'conservation area'.
So, this begs the question: "whose responsibility is it regarding the upkeep of these phone kiosks?". And who painted or gave authority to paint, the ones in Canonbury?  And if that is the body that owns them, why haven't all others been similarly maintained too? Why only conservation areas and tourist meccas?

* apart from advertising space for 'services' or as 'conveniences'

**(8thJan) I am now in the middle of an on-going email conversation with someone at BT about this – she as good as tells me they rely on the goodwill of the public to let them know when these kiosks need attention. i.e. they expect us to act as unpaid quality controllers or maintenance managers on their behalf.  This means they only fix the kiosks when it's pointed out that there is something wrong with them thusfurther enhancing BT's irresponsibility.
I will report back when I have more. Meanwhile, go paint your local kiosk any colour you would like, as I doubt BT will notice let alone care!