Telephone Boxes. What are they good for?

By aloquifique | Saturday, September 11, 2010, 17:36

Here are two telephone boxes parked right outside Balham Blooms, opposite Balham Station. Apparently, there are 25 telephone boxes, like these in and around Balham Town Centre and it's arguable whether they ever get used to make phone calls!

telephone boxes outside balham station

Jenny who runs Balham Blooms says that she's never seen anyone make a call from them, but her assistant did see a transvestite and their partner having sex in one, in broad daylight on an ordinary weekday. You have to wonder what the point of having them there is.

"Sometimes people go in them to make calls on their mobiles to drown out the traffic noise" Jenny tells me, "or to relieve themselves".

Can you tell me if you still need to use the coin boxes anymore. When your mobile battery runs out and your desperate to make a call - would you use one of these? Jenny would like these two removed, but BT want to charge her £5,000 for the pleasure. What do you think? Is it time to get rid?

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Comments

@totalCheryl on Twitter has this comment: 'Most phoneboxes i see these days are used only as pinboards for sex adverts.'

By aloquifique at 13:28 on 14/09/10
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Ian, our local Big Issue seller http://tinyurl.com/2bzql7p has this to say on Twitter: "I hardly ever use a phone box , they are unhygenic and smell of urine and there are too many in BALHAM.....Sometimes I sit next to the phone boxes near the 99p shop on Balham High Rd, and have never seen anyone make a call from them, .I did once ."

By aloquifique at 21:31 on 12/09/10
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Why do think BT want to charge Jenny £5000 for the removal of them? I would suggest its because pay phones are in now surplus to requirements and they need to make their money somehow. I think it is ludicrous that Balham Blooms should be charged at all for their removal.

The rise of mobile phones has seen the death of the humble pay phone and they are most likely just used as public toilets more often than not. We have a payphone on Weir Road which has been damaged for well over a year now and BT don't want to know. Even when they was told about it by our ward councillors and local people, they refused to even acknowledge it was their responsibility. No wonder it is then that people find other uses for them. The one on Weir Road is rarely used, has no windows (so cant even drown out the noise of the traffic should people go in it to use their mobiles) and BT don't care about them. They don't get used for their intended purpose and maybe it is time for them to be as extinct as the dinosaurs are. I certainly don't use a phone box anymore, plus they are expensive to use and most don't even work.

By WeirEstate at 15:22 on 12/09/10
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