British telephone boxes are getting a facelift, of sorts
Grimy phone boxes are becoming shiny billboards
Few things are as quintessentially British as a red telephone box. In Covent Garden, in central London, tourists queue to pose for selfies with the analogue receivers. But locals are more familiar with their uglier cousins: as design trends shifted in the second half of the 20th century, bright-red metal boxes gave way to dull, grey plastic ones. Many are in a decrepit state. Even sex workers don’t leave their cards anymore.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Phone-box blight”
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