Kiosk No. 7 (K7)

In 1958 the Post Office approached the architect Neville Conder to design a modern kiosk.  He responded with an ultra modern design using the new trunk dialling pay phone equipment.

The Kiosk was 14 inches shorter than the K6 and was constructed from aluminium, with large panes of glass.

The Kiosk was trailed in Central London in January 1962 and the public were invited to send their comments to the Postmaster General.

Due to the English weather the Kiosk never got past the prototype stage as the aluminium bled greyish streaks over the assembly and the panels blistered.  It looked a complete mess.

Only five aluminium examples entered service, four in London and one in Coventry.  A further half dozen were commissioned in cast iron, but it is not known where they were erected, if anywhere.  The aluminium prototypes continued in service for the next twenty years.

The interior is shown below.

However, all was not lost and this kiosk led to the development of the Kiosk No 8.

Taken from the Post Office Telecommunications Journal
Vol. 11, Spring 1959, No. 2

The New Telephone Kiosk

The new kiosk designed by Neville Conder, F.R.I.B.A., A.A. Dip.(Hons.), M.S.I.A., is 7 feet 2 inches high (14 inches shorter than the present one) and is of anodised aluminium, with red panels.  Designed to take the new trunk dialling coin-box with its modern telephone handset, it will be tried out in selected places to test public opinion.

Telling The Times what he had in mind Mr. Conder said that the glass panels (or walls) enable people to see the telephone from the outside and so recognise the purpose at once.  There is no back-board, so the kiosk can be built without a blind side, allowing greater flexibility in use without introducing alternative door positions.

A kiosk, Mr. Conder considers, should have a similar appearance on all four sides.  "Any strong differentiation between different sides would create a directional emphasis that might well cause architectural difficulties in some of the many types of positions in which the kiosk will have to be placed."

The telephone desk is lower than the present one and secretly incorporates all fuse and switch gear; incidentally, it also provides a brace in the horizontal plane at the most probable impact level.

Anodised aluminium, unlike cast iron (as in the present kiosk) does not rust or corrode.

The cut-off corners, which carry the information panels, enable the strong tubular aluminium columns to serve as low-level vents, secret conduits and rain-water pipes.

The design can easily have other kiosks added to it, making terraces of kiosks.
 


 

Picture above taken in 1958


Two views of the Cast Iron variant

 
 
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Last revised: November 05, 2022

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