Telephone Kiosk

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A square-plan, freestanding K6 telephone kiosk installed between 1946 and 1953. The kiosk has a tudor crown motif; indicating it predates the ascent of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne in 1953 when telephone kiosks changed to carry the St Edward’s crown motif. The kiosk is built to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's standardised design, of cast iron construction with a teak door, painted red with glazing to three of the elevations and a solid panel to the fourth (S). It has a quiet rural
setting in the hamlet of Ringsend, on the Tullyboy Road, opposite Drumrot Road and sits on an area of hardstanding in front of Ringsend Orange Hall. The kiosk is in good condition, retaining its leather door straps and original signage. The Perspex glazing, like the telephone equipment, is modern.

RWG: None
Walling: Cast-iron, painted
Windows: Single pane with glazing bars

Historical information

The telephone kiosk adjacent to Ringsend Orange Hall in Tullyboy Road dates from c1950 and is first indicated on the large-scale OS map dating from 1976.

The iconic design for the red telephone kiosk, known as K6, was commissioned by the Post Office in 1935 to mark the jubilee of King George V. The design, by celebrated English architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was an adaptation of his original classical design for the earlier K2 (1926). Scott is thought to have drawn inspiration, particularly for the characteristic pendentive roof or ‘handkerchief dome’, from the mausoleum of regency architect, Sir John Soane.

Constructed in cast-iron with a teak door, compact in size and easily mass-produced, the K6 was the most successful and ubiquitous of the phone box designs produced in the 20th century. The K6 was distributed throughout the UK from 1936 with more than 60,000 being placed around Britain and Northern Ireland. About 8,000 of these were installed as part of the 'Jubilee Concession' (celebrating 25 years of the reign of George V) announced in April 1935, which allowed towns and villages with a post office to apply for a kiosk. The ‘Tercentenary Concession’ (celebrating the Post Office's 300th anniversary) announced in July the same year, enabled local authorities to pay a subscription of £4 a year for five years to install phone boxes in areas where there was no post office and led to around 1,000 further installations. After 1949 these schemes were succeeded by the ‘Rural Allocation Scheme’, under which kiosks were placed in out-of-town areas upon the recommendation of a rural authority.

The K6 originally carried a Tudor crown motif derived from the Post Office crest. This was changed to a St Edward’s crown on the ascent of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne, and telephone kiosks after 1953 carry the new motif. The Tullyboy Road phone box can dated to after 1939, due to the asymmetrically placed cable entry holes to the rear panel (these are symmetrically placed on earlier models), and before 1953, when the St Edward’s crown was introduced. The Tullyboy Road kiosk bears the maker’s name of the Carron Company of Falkirk in Stirlingshire, the first holder of a contract to supply metal phone boxes to the GPO from the time of the K2. Carron was joined by four other foundries as production ramped up, all but one of which was located in Scotland.

Cookstown was connected to the telephone network in 1906 and a telephone exchange was opened in Magherafelt in 1909, however it was some decades before telephonic communication was brought to all the surrounding rural areas. Following partition, in the 1920s and 30s an extensive programme of installing telephone lines was undertaken in mid-Ulster. This paused for the duration of the war and recommenced immediately afterwards. The Mid-Ulster Mail records that a ‘telegraphic line’ was to be placed running from the railway level crossing at Lismoney Road to Tullyboy Bridge, just west of the current site in 1946. If it can be assumed that the phone lines reached Ringsend itself around this time then the date of the current phone box, can be further tied down to between 1946 and 1953.

The telephone box is located within the small settlement of Ringsend, consisting of a handful of dwellings and an Orange Hall belonging to Ringsend ‘Rising Star’ LOL No 163, founded in 1872. At the time the phone box was installed the Orange Hall was a 40ft x 20ft structure of corrugated metal, built in 1899 and extended in 1924. The old hall was removed from the site and a new hall opened in 1964.

References:
Primary Sources:
1. Mid-Ulster Mail, 25th August 1906, p.5; 3rd April 1909, p.5; 4th May 1935, p.10; 6th July 1946, p.1; 16th March 1963, p.14; 6th June 1964, p.4
2. Northern Whig, 1st August 1935, p.7
3. Large-scale OS maps, 1929, 1976

Secondary Sources:
4. Johanssen, N (2011) Telephone Boxes. Oxford: Shire Publications Ltd
5. Linge, N and Sutton, A (2017) The British Phone Box. Stroud: Amberley Publishing
6. The history of the cast iron pay phone box (https://ourstoriesfalkirk.com) (accessed 10 September 2025)
7. The Telephone Box - http://www.the-telephone-box.co.uk/ (accessed 10 September 2025)
8. GPO - KIOSK No. 6 (K6) - https://www.britishtelephones.com/k6.htm (accessed 10 September 2025)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A K6 telephone kiosk designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott installed between 1946-1953. This iconic piece of street furniture was once common but is now almost entirely replaced by modern mobile phone use. The kiosk is in good condition and contributes to the rural setting, combining with the adjacent hall and houses to reinforce a rural node. It serves as a reminder of the function the public telephone system played, making telecommunication connections to the broader world more readily available for dispersed rural communities.