It feels like ages since I hand-coded the HTML for the very first payphone site back in 2001. Unfortunately, all is lost from that original site! It was hosted on Yahoo!'s Geocities, which has since been discontinued, erasing the entire site before I could back it up.
At that time, I was 18 and had just returned from a three-year stay in Europe. My interest in payphones didn’t develop then, but much earlier. It stemmed from my childhood in South London when mobiles weren’t as prevalent and were mainly used by businesspeople and the wealthy. Everyone relied on payphones to stay connected, and you could find a phone box at almost every corner of Britain’s high streets. Every shop valuing customer service ensured they had a payphone for customers to use. It was a time when people could dial several numbers just from memory, rather than speed-dialing. This is where my attachment began, as I needed to contact friends and, more importantly, my mother.
Living in urban London, there wasn’t much space to play, so my friends and I would explore, sometimes crossing north of the Thames. My mother always wanted me to call home to assure her of my whereabouts. We weren’t as fortunate as many of my friends, so we didn’t have a phone at home. However, we did have a phone box right outside our house, which we relied on for our outgoing and incoming calls. It served as our own home phone; when it rang, we could hear it from our front room, just a few steps from the box. This is where my familiarity with the humble phone box grew.
Things changed, and as we earned more money, we moved up in the world and got our own home phone line. Yet, my connection with payphones wasn’t lost; our new place was within sight of a phone box! I did miss the bond we had with our old phone box. I would often call the local box from our home phone line, even when there was little chance of an answer. I just enjoyed the sound of it ringing, which reassured me that I could connect with this box whenever I wanted. Of course, I had a lot of fun pranking passers-by, which entertained me for hours. My pranks were even mentioned in the local paper, and the box became known in the area as the place where you’d make a fool of yourself. However, my fun with that box didn’t last long, as we moved frequently.
Some places we moved to had a phone box outside, while others didn’t. This brings me to 2001 when I created my first payphone site. That was the year I moved out and into a place of my own, returning to my beloved metropolis—London. It was a squat in South/West London (Kew Gardens), which had quite a bit of controversy surrounding it long before I moved in (here is an article about it). I could have found a better place to live, but this one had a phone box right outside (and the rent was only £5 per week). I could see my new phone box perfectly from the window. At this point, I had also gotten my first mobile phone, which made it easy to call the box. I would turn off my lights to prank the local kids who would hang around the box and often vandalise it. I never got much sense out of them, and they would try their best (or worst) swear words on me. Occasionally, I would manage to have a conversation with one of them, but it would usually end with them swearing and hanging up. It was mild entertainment that kept me occupied on sleepless nights. That payphone has now been removed, and the house I stayed in has been demolished for a new development. I lived in that squat for about a year and moved many times thereafter, exploring every part of my beloved city.
I am now settled in a place of my own, very close to a main station. When I moved in, there were two payphones within sight of my balcony, but that reduced to one, and earlier today, they removed the last one. It’s a sad time at the moment, but on the bright side, this area has plenty of boxes, enough to satisfy my interest. I get to see 54 payphones on my way to work every day. So, I guess you’ll be seeing quite a few payphones from my Kings Cross area on this site from now on.
Thank you for taking the time to visit this site. I understand it might seem funny or trivial to some. Payphones are simply part of daily life; you pass them, ignore them, and occasionally use them. I’ve developed a keen interest in these humble objects. I hope you enjoy the site and perhaps consider sending me a picture and the number of a box to feature here.
