K8 Telephone Kiosk

A red telephone kiosk of the K8 type, built from six cast iron parts and an aluminium door. Three sides of the kiosk, including the door, contain large sheets of toughened glass set in rectangular frames with rounded corners. The kiosk has a square plan with a flat roof dome glazed with toughened glass on four sides, each pane bearing rounded corners and the word 'TELEPHONE' on a white background.

The K8 was designed by Bruce Martin following a design competition held by the General Post Office in 1965. Bruce Martin (born 1917) studied engineering at the University of Hong Kong before qualifying in architecture at the Architectural Association. He subsequently worked for the architectural department at Hertfordshire County Council and became part of the group responsible for the so-called 'Hertfordshire Experiment', a progressive primary school building programme using pioneering construction techniques, prefabricated buildings and child-centred design.

The General Post Office's design brief required the kiosk to be easy to reassemble on site and straightforward to maintain and repair. This led to the K8 being given interchangeable components, unlike its predecessor the K6. The design had to last at least 50 years and be recognised as the United Kingdom's next generation of red telephone boxes. In response, Martin analysed Scott's K6 design meticulously, simplifying and reducing its high number of components. The resulting K8 design comprised only seven principal components, with a choice of two types of roof: a lozenge shape and a cast-line. This example features the lozenge form; the reasons why both varieties were used are unknown, but both were manufactured. The K8 first appeared on streets in 1968, and by 1983, 11,000 had been manufactured for the United Kingdom by the Lion Foundry. Of this production run, only 12 survive today.