Night clubs, cafes and art galleries - what red payphone boxes in South Warwickshire could be transformed into

MORE traditional telephone boxes could be removed from villages across the Stratford district later this year.

Over a dozen pay phones are subject to a British Telecom (BT) consultation about their removal.

The one in Wellesbourne’s Chestnut Square could be saved as Wellesbourne and Walton Parish Council has confirmed it has applied for ownership.

The others at risk of removal are in: Warmington, Shotteswell, Little Dassett, Wilmcote and Alderminster.

Phone boxes in Wolverton, Welford, Coughton, Charlecote, Harbury, Bishops Itchington and Southam’s Mayfield Road are also on the BT list.

The phone boxes can be bought by communities for £1 and given a new lease of life.

BT has said that across the country payphone usage is down significantly in the last decade but committed to keeping payphones in areas where there is no network coverage, in accident blackspots and a number of other locations.

Any listed phone boxes will have their equipment removed and the box will be locked.

A BT spokesperson said: “Overall use of payphones has declined by over 90 per cent in the last decade and the need to provide payphones for use in emergency situations is diminishing all the time, with at least 98 per cent of the UK having either 3G or 4G coverage.

“This is important because as long as there is network coverage, it’s now possible to call the emergency services, even when there is no credit or no coverage from your own mobile provider.”

The consultation is open until 13th May. Visit https://shorturl.at/jX9TC

What can old phone boxes be turned into?

The red phone box is still somewhat of a British icon, albeit a disappearing one.

However, in some areas communities have retained the phone box and repurposed, most often as a mini library or as a home for a defibrillators,

But there are other options as the phone box in Waterside, Stratford shows – it became one of the UK’s tiniest cafés when it opened in 2020.

Away from the region, in 2018 a phone box in Kingsbridge, Devon, was transformed into a nightclub while under the ownership of Kingsbridge Town Council.

A more recent phone box transformation with a difference was over in Belfast. At the back end of 2024, the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) converted a phone box in the city into a public exhibition space to display artworks, with the space becoming a ‘beacon in the city’s artistic and cultural landscape’ according to the RSUA.

The phone boxes pictured above were used as a mini ice-cream parlour in Ramsgate, Kent.

With 13 phone boxes potentially becoming available in Stratford District later this year, the ideas of what could replace them whilst maintaining the nostalgic charm of the boxes themselves is plentiful.

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