When will Preston's red telephone boxes return?

A Lancashire city's famous row of red telephone boxes have undergone a £75,000 refurbishment, but are not set to return to their home in Preston city centre any time soon.

The nine telephone booths on Market Street were due to return by the end of the year, but works are being carried out at the former Post Office property directly behind the kiosks.

With scaffolding being put up around the full building perimeter, the council said the phone boxes will have to wait to return until the building works have been completed.

Preston's booths were disconnected from the network more than a decade ago.

Having become redundant, the kiosks were vandalised and fell into disrepair before been taken over by Preston City Council in 2021.

Their Grade II-listed status - designated in 1988 - meant planning permission was needed for the facelift, which began in December 2024 when they were lifted from the site.

The boxes - famously red so they stand out - have now been stripped out, sandblasted, and fitted with new toughened windowpanes and coloured lights and power sockets so art displays can be put in them.

Blackfinch Investments, the company behind the works at the former Post Office property, have said work has started on the building with the initial phase focusing on essential repairs to make it watertight.

Valerie Wise, deputy leader and cabinet member for community wealth building and city regeneration at the council, said: "We are all eagerly anticipating the return of the telephone boxes.

"However, to protect the newly refurbished boxes from potential damage and ensure they are unveiled without scaffolding in the background, we believe it is best to wait.

"We hope their return isn't delayed for too long by the works at the former Post Office building and as such we are in close contact with the contractors on site to enable their return as soon as possible."

The eight boxes form the longest continuous line of traditional call booths in the country, which is what won them their listed status.

A ninth stands slightly apart near the fish market canopy.

Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and introduced in 1935 in celebration of the Silver Jubilee of King George V, large numbers of the K6 - or Kiosk 6 - model were installed around the country, making them a recognised symbol of 20th Century Britain.

Preston City Council said there appeared to have been a telephone kiosk on Market Street, on the west side of the former head Post Office, in the 1930s.

A photo from about 1935 shows a single telephone kiosk at the northern end of the building, where it joins the Box/Fish Market, on the same spot as the lone kiosk that stands detached from the other eight.

This earlier telephone kiosk appears to have been cream-coloured and is likely to have been a K3.

It was replaced with the current K6, which, judging from the Tudor crown with a flatter base, was one of the earlier K6s models.

By the 1970s, a further eight K6s had been added.

Six of the kiosks are adorned with the Tudor crown and pre-date 1953, the council said.

Three kiosks have the St Edward's Crown. Of these, one has integral crowns, therefore dating to sometime between 1953 and 1955.

The remaining two have slots where the crown is placed, which would suggest that they date to 1955 or later.

The plan is to use them for digital art installations, which will change over time.

The nine kiosks will look different when they return, with Preston-based company, ADI.tv commissioned to install up to three digital screens in each box, alongside speakers that will provide ambient background music.

John Chesworth, chairperson of the Towns Fund Board, said the telephone boxes "will provide a big impact when they are completed".

"The delay is unavoidable, but it will be worth it to see them in full, glorious new technicolour."

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