The Braishfield free library is housed in our iconic K6 red telephone kiosk at the junction of Newport Lane and Braishfield Road. Residents can visit the library at any time to exchange their books. The photo shows the opening ceremony on 1 May 2018.
History of our telephone kiosk
Braishfield’s telephone box pre-dates the 1940 Ordnance Survey map, and sits in its original location adjacent to the old telephone exchange. The crown at the top of the box is a King’s crown, showing that the box pre-dates Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
This information is from Historic England:
The K6 telephone kiosk is a milestone of C20 industrial design. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935 for the General Post Office, on the occasion of King George V’s Silver Jubilee. The K6 was a development from his earlier highly successful K2 telephone kiosk design of 1924, of Neo-classical inspiration. The K6 was more streamlined aesthetically, more compact and more cost-effective to mass produce. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960) was one of the most important of modern British architects; his many celebrated commissions include the Anglican cathedral of Liverpool and Battersea power station. The K2 and K6 telephone kiosks can be said to represent a very thoughtful adaptation of architectural tradition to contemporary technological requirements. Well over 70,000 K6s were eventually produced. In the 1960s many were replaced with a new kiosk type. But many still remain, and continue to be an iconic feature on Britain’s streetscapes.
Aware that our kiosk was redundant as a telephone box, a resident encouraged the Parish Council to purchase the box under British Telecom’s “Adopt a Kiosk” scheme. BT say…
The Adopt a Kiosk scheme enables your community to retain its iconic red kiosk…and preserves the heritage of the red kiosk, particularly in rural locations.
Preservation
With the help of our volunteers, we carried out initial repairs to make the kiosk water-tight, and have an ongoing maintenance programme, to preserve the kiosk for future generations.