K8 Kiosk on High Street Kensington Station

Summary

A K8 telephone kiosk, produced to a design by Bruce Martin for the General Post Office from 1968.

Reasons for Designation

The K8 telephone kiosk at High Street Kensington station is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest: * for Bruce Martin’s meticulously simplified and updated design, a classic work of C20 industrial design which is immediately recognisable as the post-war iteration of Scott’s earlier K2 and K6 kiosks; * as a nationally rare survival of a once common telephone kiosk, first introduced in 1968.

Historic interest: * the K8 is the last generation of the red public telephone box, making an important contribution to the understanding of the historic development of the telecommunications industry in England before the introduction and subsequent widespread use of mobile phones; * as an example of the K8’s adoption for internal use on the London Underground network.

Group value: * sited in the public realm on the station platform, it has group value with the unlisted station building with which its use is associated.

History

The K8 was built to a design by Bruce Martin, following a competition held by the General Post Office (GPO) in 1965. Bruce Martin (1917-2015) studied engineering at the University of Hong Kong before qualifying in architecture at the Architectural Association. He joined the Hertfordshire County Council architectural department and was jointly responsible for the ‘Hertfordshire experiment’: a progressive building scheme for primary schools. Morgan’s Junior School in Hertford, designed by Martin, is Grade II*- listed (List entry: 1119734).

The main requirement for the K8 in the GPO’s design brief was that it should be easy to re-assemble on site, and easy to maintain and repair in the future. This condition was met by the use of cast iron and toughened glass. The brief also stated that the kiosk had to last for at least 50 years and be recognised as the next generation of telephone boxes in the UK. As a result, Bruce Martin analysed Scott’s K6 design meticulously, simplifying and reducing its high number of components. His K8 design offered a simplified contemporary approach with clean lines and curves that eschewed the explicit neo-classical references of Scott’s designs.

The K8 was subsequently given only seven principal components with a choice of two types of roof: a lozenge shape and a cast-line, of which this is the latter. The cast-line roof design was introduced in 1976 to overcome difficulties regarding the telephone sign and to prevent it from cracking whilst cooling. The K8 was manufactured by the Lion Foundry and first installed in July 1968. 11,000 were introduced onto the United Kingdom's streets by 1984, after which the majority were replaced by the KX100.

The role of K8s on the Underground differs from those elsewhere. They were intended for use by station staff and were inaccessible to the public. They housed London Underground internal telephony and were painted different colours in reference to their use and the type of equipment housed within. In later years they were painted to match the colour scheme of the station. These colours also distinguished the kiosks from other K8s, indicating that they were not for public use. The blue paint of the High Street Kensington kiosk dates from the Underground corporate colour scheme of the 1990s.

Details

A K8 telephone kiosk, produced to a design by Bruce Martin for the General Post Office from 1968.

MATERIALS: cast iron, aluminium and strengthened glass.   DESCRIPTION: a telephone kiosk built of 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. There is a lock mechanism above the integral door handle. The fourth side is a back panel of cast iron. The kiosk has a square plan with a flat-roofed dome, glazed with toughened glass on four sides. The panes carry the text 'PRIVATE' and are recessed within a cast-line moulding. The kiosk is painted blue and retains its telephone equipment and surround. The auto-phone and shelf below are later replacements.

The kiosk stands on the westbound platform (Platform 3) of High Street Kensington underground station.

Sources

Books and journals
British Public Telephones - a social history, (1984), 24-27
Johannessen, N (author), Telephone Boxes, (1994, 1999), 17
Linge, N, Sutton, A, Johannessen, N, The British Phonebox, (2020), 141-153
Stamp, G, Telephone Boxes, (1989), 25, 83, 93
'Genesis of the Mark 8 Telephone Box' in RIBA Journal, (August 1969), 320-325

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