{"id":329413,"date":"2025-12-22T07:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T07:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329413\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T07:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T07:41:07","slug":"preston-city-council-keeping-listed-red-telephone-boxes-mothballed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329413\/","title":{"rendered":"Preston City Council keeping listed red telephone boxes mothballed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The authority – which acquired the booths in 2021 amid concern about their deteriorating condition – said before they were sent for restoration it planned to turn them into audio-visual and art displays. <\/p>\n

They were disconnected by BT more than a decade ago. <\/p>\n

The city council has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> it was considering installing “data cabling” to the cubicles so they can be used for “a wider variety of art installations”.<\/p>\n

The council was also concerned recently-begun renovation work at nearby Amounderness House – the former magistrates’ court building, which is being converted into flexible office space – along with upgrades to the public realm on Market Street as part of the city’s “Illuminate and Integrate” project and the planned overhaul of Friargate South, could take the shine off the spiced-up booths.<\/p>\n

A council spokesman did not specify when the booths would return but said with work due to start in spring on pavements around the site, they would stay locked up to avoid getting dusty and grimy.<\/p>\n

“Also if they come back empty they will be a magnet for anti-social behaviour,” he added.<\/p>\n

The boxes were sent to East Yorkshire for an \u00a380,000 facelift<\/a> returning them to their “vibrant” red hue.<\/p>\n

Six of the kiosks are adorned with the crowns of George V and George VI – meaning they must date back to before 1953.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The authority – which acquired the booths in 2021 amid concern about their deteriorating condition – said before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-329413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}