It’s hard to believe but in days gone by telephone booths were a device that everyone wanted to use and at one time were the only way to make a telephone call outside of the home. In fact, such was its appeal that before the advent of the mobile phone, people would literally queue outside payphone boxes just to call someone ‘privately’, or at least without the rest of the family in earshot. These days of course, calls are predominantly made using the mobile phone – a gadget most of us already take for granted – and future generations will only see phone booths in museums or books.

To celebrate its lifespan, here are ten unique examples of the phone booth.

1.

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Upon viewing the photo above for the first time, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was fake and that no payphone on earth would be situated in the middle of a body of water. But it’s real. Found on Lake Victoria in Uganda, this very unusual payphone is a in fact a solar-powered, GSM phone – and therefore wireless – used by locals just as any other payphone would be.

2.

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Above: an incredibly extravagant payphone situated in the body of a decorative leopard. This booth can be found in Brazil, a country where payphones are known as ‘orelhões’ (’big ears’) and very often take the form of animals. More examples of this striking art-form can be found at the Lost Art website.

3.

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This chilling, fully-functional phone booth can be found in Fairbanks, Alaska, and is one of many that have been carved from solid ice as part of Ice Alaska, an annual Ice Art Championships that draws crowds from across the globe. Should you be dressed in normal attire and wish to stay unstuck, it’s probably advisable to stay standing when taking long calls.

4.

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One of the most famous telephone kiosks on earth at the peak of its fame, the Mojave Phone Booth at one point became so renowned that a movie was produced in its honour. Now removed, the booth became famous in the late 1990s when its isolated location – the Mojave desert – was discussed at length online, at which point the number was also circulated. People from around the world began to call the booth, and many travelled to the area specifically to photograph it and answer the phone. It was removed in 2000, much to the dismay of its many fans.

5.

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The Aquarium Phone Booth was unveiled in Lyon last year as part of the Lyon Light Festival and instantly drew crowds. The booth’s designers, Benoit Deseille and Benedetto Bufalino, explained the inspiration behind the re-purposed call-box:

“With the advent of the mobile telephone, telephone booths lie unused. We rediscover this glass cage transformed into an aquarium, full of exotically coloured fish; an invitation to escape and travel.”

6.

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Recently introduced in Finland are these modern equivalents to the telephone booth; essentially a comfortable, semi-secluded seat in a public space, provided purely for the benefit of mobile phone users. Supposedly introduced in order to offer the caller a quiet place to make a call, but more likely a polite and entirely reasonable effort to cordon off those seemingly intent on airing their private calls in public, loudly. A development I wholeheartedly support and one which hopefully will seep into all corners of the world.

7.

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Developed by Michael and Susan Katzev, the underwater phone booth seen above was designed in order for divers to be able to contact people at the water’s surface by phone; in turn negating the need to physically resurface should contact be necessary. The booth, which takes the form of an air-filled acrylic hemisphere, also makes it possible to change or fix faulty equipment whilst remaining on the sea bed.

8.

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In 2006, the red phone box in the photo above appeared overnight and ‘landed’ in Downtown Los Angeles, to much speculation. It wasn’t long before famous street artist Banksy was identified as the brains behind the stunt; a fitting tribute – we think – to a cultural icon that will soon be a distant memory.

9.

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Spotted in Gendron, Belgium last September, this greenery-covered example is surely one of the most dilapidated telephone booths on earth and a stark sign of the times. Sights similar to this are becoming more common by the day and in fact, as early as 2004, Jordan became the first country to remove all public phone booths due to some not being used for years.

10.

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Above: a solar-powered telephone booth in Australia. Just one of many now found in hotter climates around the world.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Phones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.