Nine rare K8 phone boxes in and around Hull have been listed at Grade II by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.
The K8 was designed in 1965-66 by architect Bruce Martin who was commissioned by the General Post Office, owners of the public telephone network. In contrast to the intricate glass panelling of Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic K2 and K6 boxes, it is notable for its modern and minimalist appearance, which made it simpler to repair and maintain.
The K8 kiosk is the last generation of the classic public telephone box. Between 1968 and 1983 11,000 K8s were installed across the UK. However, there are only around 50 remaining in their original position as most of them were removed by British Telecom following its privatisation in 1984. They were replaced by the sleek silver KX100 kiosk, which in turn were made virtually obsolete by the proliferation of mobile phone ownership.
Most of the identified surviving K8s are in and around Hull because they were not the property of British Telecom. Hull is the only place in England where the local council actively ran the public telephone network, having been granted a licence to operate from 1902 to 2007. Today, the network has continued to be run by an independent company, Kingston Communications.
As a mark of the independence of the network, the K8s (the K1 and all K6s) in Hull are painted cream, rather than the red used elsewhere in the country.
