Telephone Kiosk, Rockdale Road, The Rock, Co Tyrone

Telephone Kiosk, Rockdale Road, The Rock

This is a freestanding cast-iron telephone kiosk of the K6 type, located at the centre of The Rock hamlet, north of Dungannon in County Tyrone. It is a good surviving example of the iconic design created by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of King George V.

The kiosk is four-sided and rectangular in plan, constructed from cast-iron sections. It has a shallow domed roof with convex moulded edges, giving each face a segmental-headed profile. Each entablature is slightly set back from the main panel and contains an illuminated glazed rectangular sign in obscure glass reading TELEPHONE in serif lettering (some panels now faded), with a moulded Royal (St. Edward's) Crown above. Fixed full-height margin-paned glazed panels are installed to the east and west sides, with a similarly configured hinged door featuring a steel cup handle on the north side. Each glazed panel is surrounded by plain decorative moulding. The south side is solid, with a blank panel matching the dimensions of the glazed panels. A foundry plate fixed near the bottom edge reads 'LION FOUNDRY / CO. LTD / KIRKINTILLOCH'.

The kiosk is mounted on a concrete base and sits on a slightly elevated landscaped green along Rockdale Road, accessed by a tarmac path from the road to the north and from the row of houses to the south. A stone sculpture of 'The Water Carrier' (2015) by Audriy Cherpanyak stands directly to the east, with a commemoration plaque to local writer Ellen Beck (1856–1924). A listed water pump is located a short distance to the west.

The precise date of installation is not known, but it is likely to fall between 1955 and 1959. The placement of the crown motif within a slotted panel rather than as part of the main casting is significant: this change was introduced in 1955 specifically to allow the Scottish crown to be inserted into kiosks destined for Scotland without requiring the entire casting to be altered. The kiosk does not appear on any historic Ordnance Survey map series.

The K6 was one of eight kiosk types introduced by the General Post Office between 1926 and 1983, and remains the most iconic and popular design. Following its introduction in 1935, approximately 8,000 kiosks were installed as part of the 'Jubilee Concession', which permitted towns and villages with a Post Office to apply for one. The type remained in use until 1968. A further 1,000 kiosks were subsequently installed over twelve years under the 'Tercentenary Concession', celebrating the Post Office's 300th anniversary, with local authorities paying a five-year subscription of £4.

Lion Foundry, which cast this kiosk, was an architectural and sanitary ironfounders established in Kirkintilloch near Glasgow in 1880. Initially the company produced ornamental gates and railings, but later expanded to larger items including bandstands, canopies and fountains. It developed a notable reputation for theatre projects and worked with Frank Matcham, designer of the Grand Opera House in Belfast. Declining demand for architectural ironwork after 1950 led the foundry to pursue contracts for street furniture, including telephone boxes and post boxes.

The kiosk now stands as an important relic of the evolving communications network of the twentieth century and an example of the potential of cast-iron for mass-produced structures. Such items have become increasingly rare and serve to enliven the picturesque rural hamlet of The Rock, whose name derives from a stone quarry that operated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its presence is further enhanced by the nearby listed water pump, which occupies the same central green area.