Two K8 Telephone Kiosks At Raf Benson

BENSON

565/0/10008 CLAY LANE 01-OCT-10 (West of) Two K8 telephone kiosks at RAF Benson

II Two K8 telephone kiosks, 1968 or after, designed by Bruce Martin. Cast iron and toughened glass; concrete floor.

DESCRIPTION: The two kiosks stand side by side outside the air base's shop and post office building. Each is a cast-iron box, with tall windows of toughened plate glass in the door and the two side walls. The solid rear wall, on which the telephone equipment is mounted, has a blind panel in place of a window. The upper section has slightly curved corners, and displays on all four sides glazed signage panels marked 'TELEPHONE', lit by a neon strip set into the roof. (Three panels, one on the left-hand kiosk and two on the right, have lost their original lettering.) The floor is of concrete.

HISTORY: The K8 telephone kiosk was designed in 1965-6 by the architect Bruce Martin, and emerged as the winner of a 1965 competition to produce a successor to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 kiosk of 1935. Production began in 1968, with around 11,000 K8s ultimately being manufactured. In contrast to the still-ubiquitous K6, only a small percentage of the later kiosks now survive in public use, although others have passed from British Telecom to private site owners.

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: The two telephone kiosks at RAF Benson are designated at Grade II for the following principal reason: * They are intact examples of the K8 model kiosk, an inventive Modernist adaptation of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 design.