K6 Telephone Kiosk

752/0/10013

SANDWICH NEW STREET K6 Telephone Kiosk

18-MAY-09

II K6 telephone kiosk

DESCRIPTION: the K6 is a standardised design made of cast iron, painted red overall with long horizontal glazing in door and sides and with the crowns situated on the top panels being applied not perforated. There are rectangular white display signs, reading TELEPHONE beneath the shallow-curved roof. It has modernised internal equipment. It retains around two-thirds of its glass windows and the remainder are now Perspex. The kiosk is missing a small section at the bottom right hand corner of its door.

The kiosk stands on the site of a Scheduled Ancient Monument at the southern end of the town of Sandwich. On the same side of the road 20m to the north of the kiosk stand the Sandwich Arms Public House and 7 Bollards at the Junction of Rope Walk with New Street, both listed Grade II. To the north east of the kiosk on the opposite side of the road, again at a distance of approximately 20m, are situated 61 Bollards from St Georges Road to Galliard Street, Railing upon the Bridge at Entrance to Mill Wall and Walling and Bridge of the Delf Stream at the Entrance to the Mill Wall (all Grade II). These listed buildings form a collective group when viewed from both the north and south of New Street, and the kiosk therefore has a close visual relationship with five listed buildings.

HISTORY: The K6 telephone kiosk is a milestone of C20 industrial design. The K6 was designed by 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. 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 far plainer kiosk types. But many still remain, and continue to be an iconic feature on Britain's streetscapes.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The K6 telephone kiosk in New Street, Sandwich, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It has a strong visual relationship with five listed buildings, all of which can be taken in simultaneously with the kiosk by the viewer

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