K6 Telephone Kiosk

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MAPPOWDER Hammond Street, The Old Post Office K6 Telephone Kiosk

23-APR-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 all glass windows, and appears to be intact and in good condition (2009).

The kiosk stands directly in front of the Old Post House (Grade II) at the centre of the village. On the opposite side of the street, approximately 20m to the east, stand 593 & 594 Hammond Street (Grade II). Styles Farm and the house adjoining it (both Grade II) are also in close visual proximity, standing approximately 25m to the south. The kiosk forms a close visual grouping with these four listed buildings collectively.

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 Mappowder, Dorset, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It has a strong visual relationship with four listed buildings * It enjoys a contextual relationship with the adjacent Post Office * It is a representative example within a village setting of this important C20 industrial design

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