Nostalgia and the profit motive have created a market in old phone kiosks
But BT, Britain’s former telecoms monopoly, is not happy
ON A RECENT Sunday afternoon, Hampstead High Street offered a very British sight: an orderly queue outside a red telephone kiosk that has not been used to make a call for many years. Danny Baker, a retiree-turned-barista, whips up flat whites on an espresso machine where the phone used to be. The novelty of the kiosk draws in passers-by, some of whom have become regulars.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Bigger inside”
Britain December 11th 2021
- Behind the chaos and scandal of Boris Johnson’s government lies stasis
- A court bashes Uber into compliance—again
- For the clinically vulnerable, “Freedom Day” has yet to arrive
- Britain is liberalising its listing rules to revive its battered bourse
- Nostalgia and the profit motive have created a market in old phone kiosks
- The robots are gathering to help beat Britain’s supply-chain shortages
- Britain’s new suburbs are peculiar places
From the December 11th 2021 edition
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