The prototype of a famous design
Behind the wrought-iron gates of the Royal Academy of Arts stands the very first example of the red telephone box called K2. This one-off item was made of wood for a competition in 1924, as the earlier model, K1, had been rejected.
The designer of K2 was Giles Gilbert Scott (1880–1960), a scion of a well-known dynasty of architects. At the age of 22, he was awarded the commission to build the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, and has a strong presence on the Thames with his two unmistakable power stations at Bankside (now the Tate Modern) and Battersea. For the miniature architecture of the phone box, Scott turned to the formal repertoire of classical building. His careful design gave it a shallow dome and fluted window frames. For the colour, he proposed silver, but the General Post Office opted for red and installed 1700 steel-built K2 phone kiosks, one of which stands opposite the prototype. The 200 surviving K2s are all protected monuments.
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Address Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD | Public Transport Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo, Piccadilly Line) | Tip The Royal Academy of Arts founded in 1768 has its own art collection and puts on outstanding changing exhibitions. Its cafés are good places to take a break.
With its height of 2.74 metres and a weight of 1250 kilos, K2 was too expensive, but alternatives made of concrete (K3), with a built-in stamp vending machine (K4) and of plywood (K5) failed to catch on. In 1935, Scott produced a simplified version: K6, 30 centimetres shorter and 500 kilos lighter than K2, with a teak door. 60,000 of them were manufactured. K6 is plainer and has eight rows of windows on each side, with the middle window in each row wider (K2 has six rows of three windows, all the same size). K6 became a design classic, so popular that its successor, K8, did not appear until 1968. 11,000 K6 boxes still stand in Britain, and a considerable number can be seen abroad. 2260 of them are listed heritage structures. They are not all identical. Look out for the crown in the pediment: since 1953 it has been a depiction of St Edward’s Crown, the one used for coronations, rather than a stylised »Tudor« crown.
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