A vacant red telephone box in Stamford Hill has been put up for auction with a guide price of £15,000.
The Grade-II listed structure is connected to the electricity mains and has planning permission to be converted for retail use.
Hackney Council approved a planning application made in 2019 to transform the telephone box for retail use, although the new owner would need to obtain any relevant consents, particularly given the heritage status of the structure.
The original application was made by Edward Ottewell, the former director of the now-shuttered Red Kiosk Company, which bought 124 boxes from BT for £1, obtained planning permission and rented them out to traders.
According to its Historic England listing, the kiosk is a K6, or kiosk number six, also known as the Jubilee kiosk.
Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect behind the UK’s iconic red telephone box, the K6 was introduced in 1935 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V.
It’s identifiable by its Art Deco-style curving roof, smaller size compared to earlier editions, and embossed bas-relief crown insignia. As a K6, it has been cast from sturdy cast iron and painted in British Telecom’s official Current Red paint.
In 2015, the K-series red telephone box was voted the Greatest British Design by the public, beating the Routemaster double decker bus, the Union Jack, and the Spitfire.
Telephone boxes were painted red so as to stand out on the street, but the advent of mobile phones has made them less of an essential service and more of a nostalgic tourist attraction.
Today they can also make unique homes for small businesses, as they occupy prime locations on the city streets.
Several enterprising Londoners have turned them into everything from tiny coffee shops to micro libraries.
Visitors to the phone box on the east corner of Russell Square in Bloomsbury can find Walkmisu, vendors of tiramisu puddings to-go.
The Original Red Coffee Box is housed in a Grade-II listed telephone kiosk in Hampstead, although it has been temporarily closed while its owner Danny Baker recovers from a serious fall.
Telephone box businesses came into their own during the pandemic for Amar Café, who had the misfortune of opening their first coffee shop the week before lockdown.
Co-founders Lore Mejia and Sean Rafferty pivoted to selling their Colombian coffee from their booth-cafes around London, which provided them with a springboard to open their bricks-and-mortar café in Chelsea in May 2021.
Telephone boxes are not the only small spaces that Londoners are turning into business opportunities.
Simon Squibb bought a disused stairwell in Twickenham at auction last year for £25,000 and has turned it into a hub for business kickstarters.
But if it's a new career as a telephone box entrepreneur specifically that is, ahem, calling to you, the lot for the Stamford Hill telephone box will be up for auction on February 7 2024.
